Thread: New Old Guy

Welcome to the forum. We are always glad to have a new member and you will find some of your pipe smoking brothers here as well as wetshavers.

Hi & welcome to SRP. Sorry I'm late to the party but I have been busy going to Physical Therapy & other things after a drunk driver pulled out in front of me on My Harley just before Christmas. Congrats on the Ralf Aust & strop from SRD, you'll love them. Lynn, the owner of this forum & part owner of SRD hones each & every razor that goes to its new owner plus as you know you get a free honing for when it needs it which will be down the road 2-3 months if stropped right. Since you have already been doing lots of reading on here, I'm sure you saw that the most important thing to owning a straight razor is knowing how to strop one. You can practice on an old wide leather belt & a butter knife or if you use a butter knife, you can practice on your new strop. It is easy to cut a strop by accidentally going the wrong way which many of us including myself have done when we were first learning this age old art. I'm sure you will be getting some soap & a mug or scuttle along with a good brush. There is so much information on here for you to learn so take it all in, you won't regret it. You'll find that you will get a much better, closer, smoother shave than those expensive cartridges which can run into a lot of money over time. In the long run, if you learn to hone a razor later down the road, you will find that it is cheaper in the long run plus you will enjoy the shave like our ancestor's did it. Should you learn to hone your own razor, buy you a cheap one from eBay & use it to practice with instead of using your new straight. You may also want to buy yourself a spare for when you send your razor out to be honed so that you have a backup to shave with. I've got a lot of old razor's here so if you do decide to learn to hone & need an old razor to practice with, just pm me with your address & I will give you one for free & it will most likely be good enough to shave with also , that way you can check your honing skills. All that said, I think I have said pretty much so have fun &
good luck!
Steve

Welcome to the party!