Thread: Some questions I haven't seen answered yet

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the site, new to straight razor shaving, but I've been reading these posts and threads for weeks, and for weeks working on getting my razor "shave ready." I've spent countless hours researching what to do, how to do it, and what to use. So this is where I'm at, and if any of you can shed some experienced insight to my dilemma, by all means, I'm all ears:

1. I bought a beautiful ebony handled dovo straight from Germany in a sealed box. Supposedly "shave ready". And for 3 shaves, it was.

2. I bought a $20 strop from some store on ebay. Tried stropping (probably too much pressure) and did not sharpen the razor. Probably made it duller.

3. No big deal, I also bought a Kitayama sharpening stone, supposedly with a high enough grit to get that "shave ready" edge, right? Wrong. What it WILL do is shine your blade like a mirror. What it will NOT do is put an edge on a razor that doesn't already have one or set a bevel. I imagine that under a microscope, even though I think I'm grinding away at the very edge of the blade, I'm probably not, and the stone's grit is so fine that I'm hardly taking any material off at all. And after several hours of trying, ( on a 3" wide stone, mind you, using only the weight of the razor, with the spine and blade on the stone, AKA proper form) I have a blade as sharp as it was previously, only now it's super-duper shiny.

4. So, I decided I needed a lower grit stone to set the bevel, and THEN finish it with the kitayama, so I ordered a 10 inch long by 3 inch wide Belgian Blue, 4,000 grit. I realize that most of you probably set a bevel with a 1,000 grit stone, but I thought that since I got 3 good shaves from it from the factory, that I could start with a 4,000 grit stone and just put some extra time in on it.

5. One last thing. Does the leather on the strop make a difference? What should it feel/look like? Is it soft like suede, shiny like a finished leather coat, hard like shoe leather, soft and supple, etc?

5. Do any of you veterans out there have any light to shed? I'm on a good razor, a great finishing stone, but this razor thing is tuff.