New to straight razors (loads of questions)
Ok i have oodles of questions here... i just watched the honing video, and i have a good number of questions for some of you straight razor gurus here... :)
1: the razor i intend to buy is a 4/8 dovo stainless blade... just kinda putting that out there.. dont see any issues being a newbie and having a blade thats 1/8 of an inch smaller than the standard 5/8 size... but, if anyone has any other input, let me know.
2: in the video, the guy uses 2 completely different stones... is this really necessary? or is it just a "good idea"? what kind of stone would be best for a newbie to start with, something cheap, reliable and still get a really good edge on it
3: he also used a small stone to make what he called a "slurry" ontop of the 4000 grit... what is the purpose of that? and is it a necessity? what do i need to create that assuming it IS a necessity?
4: he took the tape off the spine of the blade after only a few strokes down the 4000 grit... im assuming probably because the miniscule thickness of the tape would hinder getting an even steeper angle on the edge... is this true? and considering this, wont this completely obliterate the nice shiny finish along the top of the blade? not to mention... wear it down faster? (the stone AND the blade...)
5: i notice he uses muti "micron" pastes on a 4 sided paddle strop... this is kind of a multi part question... do you need multiple pastes? do you need more than 2? do you need pastes at ALL (lol)? and finally, do you need a separate strop for your paste? if so, do paddle strops work best for this?
6: the final question... how often do you really need to do all this? LOL not really a whole lot of work, but if you have to do it even once a month, it might prove to be excessive... i dont plan on using mine more than 2 or 3 times a week... but even as a daily razor, how often can one expect to put the time into honing a blade?
:w i lied... last question... :roflmao where can i get the best deals on strops and stones? do people here sell them often? :shrug: :D
thanks guys!