Hey Guys,

Just picked up a cheap straight razor on ebay. Today, I won myself a canvas/leather strop, and badger hair brush on ebay as well; and I picked up some shaving soap and a styptic pencil at the store.

Got interested in straight razor shaving about 3 weeks ago and I'm knocking down the supplies one by one..So, in order to get started...I still need to get (among a few other things):

-"Yellow" paste for the strop
-A hone


So, at this point--I've got a couple questions regarding these items in specific, and if you can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

1) As for the hone(s)...should I get a starter set of barber hones from Tilly, or should I just go right for a Norton 4/8k? (Background: I'm aiming to keep at this until I get it right, as I would prefer to get away from the costs and lame performance of disposables/cartridge razors. Is a Norton overkill for me, as a beginner?)

2) If I go with a Norton--is this something I can find at a well known store, and if so who would carry it? Also, how about online retailers? I'm new enough to not really know who's reputable and priced well.

3) Are there any brick and mortar places that sell strop paste, or is my best bet online for that one, too?

4) What's the proper way to apply the paste to the strop?


Thanks for any guidance, fellas..