Thread: New eager member

Hi!

I’m 42 yo and have been thinking of using a straight razor for some time. I'm grateful for the detailed information on your website. I feel I’m ready to start now. However, I am confused by all the options for which straight razor to purchase. Could anyone point me to a specific website or link where I could purchase the items at reasonable cost? After reading through SRP, here are my needs:

1. I would like to avoid animal products or plastic. Wood or stainless steel razors would be my preference.
2. Point style: I think I would prefer a square style rather than round to be able to tell exactly where the shave begins. However, I read one senior member suggest that square styles are more prone to cuts. Is this a minor issue that I can overcome with practice?
3. I would like a BRAND NEW razor, one that has never been used by another person.
4. I understand that if I get a new razor, it won’t truly be “shave-ready” and that I’ll need to hone it. Can I learn to properly hone it if I watch the video’s on SRP? Or am I unlikely to acquire the skills necessary at this stage?
5. I would appreciate recs on strops that are not made of leather

I don’t have a sense for how much this is going to cost me. I would like good quality material that will last the next 20-30 years, and reasonably priced.

Thanks for any guidance you can give me!

Tony miller at thewellshavedgentleman.com used to sell a good quality non-leather strop.

Straigtrazordesigns.com has razors that meet all of your criteria. They shave test after honing them. Maybe they won't if you ask nicely.

You can watch honing videos. Either way expect to practice honing for many hours before you get good results.

Michael

I would avoid learning to hone for the time being. Depending on YOUR learning curve your plate may be full already. I do suggest that you find what is known as a barbers hone for routine touchups. This will also allow you to learn proper honing technique with out screwing a blade up. You may have a problem find a new blade with a square point. Round points have dominated the market for years now, but I do enjoy your enthusiasm for one, they will teach you to keep your eye on the blade. The above post has some good recommendations.

Hi and welcome. Honing your first razor isn't recommended due to the need to perfect your technique and you won't know shave ready anyhow as you have no comparison. A razor from srd would come shave ready with next honing free. This would give you time to buy a cheap blade to practice on and give you a knowledge of what a shave ready razor is.

a couple more thoughts:

I don't think you have anything to worry about with a round point. Many people get a round point as a first razor, myself included. There isn't any trouble figuring out "where the shave begins" as you say. Some of my worst cuts have come from the tip of a square point, and I do think they are a little more dangerous for a beginner. Practice helps, and the tip can be rounded if necessary.

I'm guessing that this will be less of a hobby for you, and more of a lifestyle thing. I still do think that you will benefit from meeting up with some local guys who can help get you started. Plan on taking a while to get the hang of straight razor shaving and all the skills associated with it. Make sure to have some enjoyment along the way too!

For what you are looking for, I think you will be spending around 200 for a strop and a razor. I think a synthetic hair brush can be had for around 50, and a Norton 4/8 hone would be about 90. So your total for brand new, unused supplies would be between 200-340. That's just an estimate off the top of my head.

Let me know if this helps.

Michael

Thank you all for your advice. I'll work off your suggestions and hopefully order everything over the next week. I live in the Baltimore-DC area. Is there a link on SRP that would allow me to find local guys I could meet up with?

Local Help - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I'd get in touch with afdavis or legalbeagle. If they are too far they might be able to hook you up with someone closer. I've met both of them and they are nice guys.

Michael

I'm sure people all shave slightly differently, but I never get the point about point styles and shaving technique. I never ACTUALLY use the point when I shave, the point just follows the belly of the razor. Even in a sweeping move ( a more advanced move) the point follows the belly. I DO use the heel to shave around my goatee, and like defined square heels for this.

While it's true a spikey spike can lead to cuts (esp near the neck under the ear) my first razor was a spike and i simply learned to respect it.

When you say 'wood or stainless steel' you are talking about the scales, aren't you? Of course you can stainless razors, but they are harder to hone, I've heard. There are a lot of new razors out there with wooden scales. There are also an increasingly large number of natural shaving soaps and creams. Mike's Shaving soaps are good, and so are Madame Scodiloi (etsy).

You CAN buy new razors that are shave ready. I'd say you CAN learn to hone, but you need to know what a shave ready razor feels like BEFORE you learn to hone...

Thank you Michael, MattCB, and carlmaloschneider for your recent posts, as well as for the links. As I read through all the comments, it is sinking in a bit more - just how important it is to know what a shave ready razor really feels like. I’ll likely order one of the 5 listed by MattCB, but SRD tests them on a human being after honing. However, Michael mentioned they could skip that step if I asked.

I don’t know how often the person honing needs to test it on himself during the sharpening process. When my father first taught me to shave, he warned me of never using another man’s blade b/c of the contamination risk of blood. I am an internist by profession, and make sure to never use any sharp object on a person that could have a risk of contamination. The “sterilization” procedure used by SRD is unclear. I don’t think they are autoclaving the razors after honing them – or are they? This process does properly sterilize anything, although one dangerous condition, CJD, is a prion transmitted disease that is not inactivated by autoclaves.

So to be perfectly safe I wanted a razor that has never been used or tested on another. But I just don’t know how to compare it to a “shave ready” razor – using a brand new Gillette or such I guess wouldn’t provide a proper comparison? Or is the self testing procedure that SRD uses more of a "double checking" procedure but not critically important to getting it shave ready?

SRD seems to be located in Medina, OH, which is a 6 hr drive from Baltimore where I live. If you all feel this is critical, I suppose I can make the drive there one of these days to have them shave test the blade on me...I do want to get the important skills/ concepts right. Thanks!

As my signature states, this isn't a shot against you, but every now and then we get new members (usually with a medical background) that are very much concerned/obsessed with full sterilization of used or new razors. There are several old threads that cover this territory. All I can say is that yes, certain precautions should be taken BUT this forum has thousands of members who use vintage razors and to my knowledge none of us are diseased or have died because of it