Hello all, while I've have had an interest most of my adult life, I've only had a couple of straight razor shaves at barbers here in Japan and have never attempted it myself. I am currently in the initial information gathering and learning stages, and don't even own a razor yet. That being said, I am an avid martial artist and Japanese kitchen knife aficionado so I have some familiarity with high performance blades. I already own a number of sharpening stones/hones (Atoma #140, #1200, and Shapton Professional #320, #1000, #5000), and leather strops. I imagine I'll add a Shapton Pro #8000 and #12,000 to that collection once I purchase a razor. I'm open to suggestion, but at this point I am primarily interested in Japanese made western style folding straight razors. I look forward to learning a lot here!

Cheers,
Pete