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.

JMO, send your razor to one of the guys listed in the member services section for honing. Put away the hones until you learn to shave properly.

Couldn't have said it better myself Dllandry.

a great starter strops is "the filly" from ruprazor.com. $22.00 including shipping.

All of the above are true but do not answer you questions IMHO.

You got a shave ready razor so the bevel should be OK, so if you dulled it by stropping incorrectly all you need is to hone the edge. You do not have to reset the bevel unless you applied extreme pressure, lifted the spine off the leather while stropping or did not pull the strop taut when stropping.

As to the quality of the strop: I can only comment on it when you let us know what you bought.

Learn how to hone on a cheap and cheerful vintage razor, not on your new DOVO. Don't be tempted to buy a cheap new razor on ebay: they're made of crap metal and will never take an edge no matter how experienced your are. Lynn's DVD will teach you how, consult the wiki as well: Beginner's Guide to Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki

and for videos by members: Honing videos - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Forget all the advanced honing stuff like rolling X-strokes etc.

Good luck!

One thing I see a lot of noobs do is to try and learn honing and SR shaving at the same time. They both have a pretty sharp learning curve. You won't need to hone your straight for a few months, as long as it arrives in shave ready condition. You're better off learning your SR shaving skills, than trying to do both of these things at once.

To answer your strop question, you should get one with both a leather and a linen side. And, yes, the leather one will be somewhat stiff until you break it in.

Sorry to say that your eBay strop probably isn't helping matters for you.
There are good budget strops out there, but the ones from eBay aren't them...

Originally Posted by HNSB

Sorry to say that your eBay strop probably isn't helping matters for you.

There are good budget strops out there, but the ones from eBay aren't them...

Just curious, but why do you say the eBay cheap strops are no good? I am fairly new to SR shaving and purchased a cheapo strop from eBay because I knew I would nick it up while learning to strop, which I did. So farI have had good results with it, as my razor is still quite sharp and able to pass the hanging hair test, but I must admit that I have no idea how much better an expensive strop can be. Also, I occasionally use a balsa strop with chromium and iron oxides.

Originally Posted by BeltFed80

Just curious, but why do you say the eBay cheap strops are no good? I am fairly new to SR shaving and purchased a cheapo strop from eBay because I knew I would nick it up while learning to strop, which I did. So farI have had good results with it, as my razor is still quite sharp and able to pass the hanging hair test, but I must admit that I have no idea how much better an expensive strop can be. Also, I occasionally use a balsa strop with chromium and iron oxides.

You got lucky. You've could've ended up with five other strops that were not any better than stropping on a brick.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

You got lucky. You've could've ended up with five other strops that were not any better than stropping on a brick.

I doubt that. IME most strops work acceptably. The finer quality ones simply work better.