USTURA A NEWBE SAYS HELLO

Hi guys. Im a newbe. I'm joining all of you from Turkey and my callsign is USTURA, which means straight razor in Turkish. Both of my grandfathers and my great grandfather used to shave with straight razors when I was a small kid. Well now Im 40 years old and two years ago or so I all of a sudden developed a taste for SR shaving and could not find a good source for SR stuff. So I turned to the internet and have found few sites. Then I found Classicshaving.com, and found out about Mr. Lynn and then of course about SRP. So I joined and dont quite know what to do where so I'm writing here. I've just placed an order with Classicshaving worth five hundred and nine dollars and here is what I ordered:
- Mr. Lynn's DVD
- Bergischer Lowe DOVO str. razor
- DOVO best russian strop
- Yellow paste
- White paste
- Pumice stone
- Dovo white Super silvertip badgerhair brush
- Handmade nickelplated bowl
- Taylors sandalwood soap
- DOVO alum block
- DOVO leather razor case
- Dovo sterol lubricant.

So here are my questions. What else do I need. Im ordering all natural japanese water stones including arato, aoto, awase and nagura stones. I like to get everything natural. I also plan to order some TI strops and trio of traditional pastes red, black and green later. I own a large number of hard to find hi end knives and do my own honing but I understand razors are a little bit different.

Iv seen how to shave enough times from my elders just that Ive not done it myself. Any input will be well appreciated.

Im planning to buy 4-5 more razors like 5/8" dovo bone hadle bismarc, TI wheat berry 5/8", timor hamburg ring, dovo prima klang, maybe 7/8" filarmonica. Again input is appriciated.

Well I guess I blabbed on enough already and look forward to hearing from you guys.

USTURA

Welcome ustura, good to have you on board, As far as what you need? I think that you will have allot to get used to for know. When I started STR8shaving again it took awhile for me to get a good shave down. Heck some days I'm still looking for that shave, if you are like me, get used to what you got, it's a big learning curve at first.
Phil

Welcome. Sounds like you've jumped right in! You have enough toys to play with for quite some time. You might consider a second razor to learn on.

Welcome!

Let us know how you progress.

Lynn

Welcome aboard Ustura. I'd also get something to touch up the razors with if I were you. For that you can either find a fine finishing hone like Escher or Swaty or get a pasted paddle strop or a bench hone/strop from Tony Miller at www.thewellshavedgentleman.com. Contact Tony and he'll be more than happy to hook you up.

I'd say the only thing you need now is a little hot water. :D

Seriously, just take your time, stay focussed, read as much of the Help Files here as you can and you should be in decent shape. Keep us posted as to your progress and we'll help with the details however we can.

Nice to see the Turks finally showing up. How many countries is that now? How many left to go? I believe that's every continent except perhaps Africa. this really is an international forum. :y

X

Welcome Ustura!

Did you know throughout the eastern europe they call razors brytwa? Similar word! And in the country where I was raised (India) as well as most of that region, the same word, ustra is used!

Looks like you jumped in with both feet, so congratulations! You will see here that the Dovo Razors are really well regarded, and the Dovo stainless ones (like the micarta) should be particularly easy to care for in a humid climate.

Since you say you're looking at getting more strops and pastes, may I highly recommend Tony Miller's kits from thewellshavedgentleman.com? For pastes he makes paddle strops (diamond paste and chromium oxide pastes put a nice fine 'finish' on a razor, after the honing stones).

His hanging strops are unsurpassed in quality and a joy to own. I highly recommend his #1 Red Latigo hanging strop! Also he sells kits, one of which includes a pre-sharpened Dovo razor. Since you seem to want to do the honing yourself it might be useful to have a presharpened razor to compare with (and also they recommend having a 'test' razor to practise honing with).

Best of luck, and welcome!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nichhel

Welcome Ustura!

And in the country where I was raised (India) as well as most of that region, the same word, ustra is used!

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I was going to say the same thing! Ustura/Ustra does mean a straight razor in Hindi

Welcome aboard!!

The only things you seem to be missing are the stones.
I don't know if those japanese stones are everything you need.
If not you need a finishing stone and I recommend a Belgian coticule.
These are natural stones of high quality, and seem to be prefered by most people here as finishing stones.

As for having enough: I have far less than you do already and I get by.

The only thing I can encourage you to do is to experiment with different grinds and sizes, because you'll find that different razors give different shaves.
Also remember that a razor does not have to cost xxx$ to be a great shaver.

Welcome and enjoy this forum. It is a friendly place to be.

hi
I have a q for u. I purchased a 3" 4k/8k norton stone and a 2 sided paddle strop from TI with dovo pastes. Now for polishing which is better.
- belgian cuticule
- escher from tony miller
- swaty


Or do I need a swaty for touch ups and escher or a coticule for polishing?
whats the deal here?


also I have a mastercard but no paypal so how can I get a swaty and from who.Id rather pay twice the money but I dont want to mess around with paypal and ebay and stuff. I simply dont have time

sincerely ustura

Well the two sided paddle strop (pasted) should be just fine as a finishing hone, especially since you've already bought one. Most people would probably agree a belgian yellow coticle is 'better', but it's extra money and you've already spent a lot of money.

You should be able to get really good results with what you have already though, no need to rush out and buy anything else just yet. I'd suggest using what you have and get comfortable with it all - you'll find there's a lot to learn and it takes practice practice practice to get used to it all. :)

Welcome to the club. :)

Hi ustura I ve been many times to turkey and must admit that classic shaving is not dead there