Thread: New guy from NL walking in

Hey all,

After reading hours and hours of websites and watching videos, this SR virus got to me. It started out with a commercial for BoldKing.com on Dutch TV, a brand that sells cartridges cheaper than for example Gillette. I decided to Google it, and suddenly a whole new world of shaving opened up to me. Safety razors, shavettes, straight razors, all those things I've never seen in real life.

1 of the things that eventually got me all dizzy were all the variables in this game: the blades, the brushes, cream or soap (and after you made the choice: which brand do you choose?), strops, pre-shave or not, honing and the stones, etc. etc.
Man, so much to choose from! Where do you start?

I've visited a store today, had a nice long chat about all of this and got advice on many different parts (smelled and tried some cremes, etc.). Walked out the door eventually with a Dovo Celludir 5/8, some Proraso creme and pre-shave, alum stick, styptic pencil and part of a dead badger bound together. I chose a more expensive 3'' strop, as I believe that's a little more userfriendly for a new guy (no x-stroke stropping or other patterns; first let me get used to this stuff).
The strop doesn't have linen or canvas side to it though. The shop employee told me he didn't see the need of stropping on a linen/canvas side, nor did he hear of touching up with chromium oxide on the inner side of the linen/canvas as I saw Lynn Abrams do in one of his videos. Any feedback on this is welcome! The other strops in the shop were much smaller, but did have a linen side. Would that be better?

Honing: it probably sounds ridiculous for a guy who didn't even try his SR yet to even THINK about honing, but...as I mentioned in the introduction, reducing costs is one of the factors that got me to a SR. Sending a SR to get it honed will likely both cost me money for the honing, and how do I shave when my SR is away for a week or more? That would require me to get a second SR, so even more costs.
That's why I'd like to learn how to hone in a while if I know if a SR really is my kind of game. Didn't buy a stone yet, even though I was tempted to it. There was a corticule 4k/8k for €40, but even though I'm the "dive in all the way" kind of guy, my good sense jumped in and said "How about trying a few strokes, and after a while a full shaving, without creating a blood bath first?" which seemed like a wise idea to me ;-)
Before visiting the store, I did check some websites to see if anyone offers cheap, second-hand SRs, which I might use to learn how to hone. Or could a bad blade mess up a honing stone?

Sorry for making this a long introduction, guys! Hopefully you'll have some feedback or input for me, and maybe some guys from NL can tell me where to get an SR honed in NL without costing a lot, or how/where to learn it myself.

Thank you!

Best regards,
"Aldo Raine"

Welcome!

It's recommended that you get your razor honed professionally the first time so you know what a good edge feels like, especially since most factory edges are not shave ready. It's also more difficult to learn everything at once...focus on shaving, so then when you start honing, you know if you've done it right or not.

eBay is a great source for a cheap razor to practice honing. If you mess up the edge on your shaving razor, you'll end up sending it off to a pro anyway.

You're going to wind up with a 2d razor, so buy one and get them both pro- honed before you shave. There are several members in the Netherlands, who I'm sure will weigh in soon. If not you can search the member list for your locale.

Welcome Aldo. You are in the right place!

Welcome to the forum!

Aldo, welcome to SRP.
Your introduction was one of the best I have seen from a person who is new to straight razor's. You made all the right decisions if you ask me & you held back & did not buy a honing stone yet but that can be in the future. You will find that using a straight razor is so much better. You get a much closer, smoother shave with a straight that is correctly honed & stropped rather than the conventional cartridge razor's which usually make a person itch & burn. A linen or canvas strop is personal preference & you don't have to have it unless later you decide to try it along with some paste's or diamond spray. That is up to you & using just leather is just fine to start out with. And yes a second straight razor is much better to have than just one because when you do send one out to be honed, you will need something else to shave with. I hope you subscribed to Lynn's YouTube video's & if so, you will see all of his video's including those on honing & stropping. You are the first new member I have ever seen that seems to have done his homework before going shopping. You have done very well in your first purchase & I hope the Dovo is shave ready. If it needs honing, I'm sure you will be able to find someone near you who can hone your straight razor for you, then once you feel comfortable with honing, buy you a good quality but cheaply priced straight razor you can practice with until you get good at doing it, then you can hone your good straight razor's yourself instead of having someone do it for you. If you can't find someone close to you, perhaps a barber might be able to hone it for you. Hopefully, the guy you bought it from, knows how to hone & made it shave ready for you.
If you have any questions just ask.
Good luck my friend!

Welcome.. sent me a pm I hone your razor.

Originally Posted by kalerolf

Welcome.. sent me a pm I hone your razor.

There ya go Aldo, someone to hone your razor for you! Thank you kalerolf. I knew there would be someone who could do it for you.

Originally Posted by kalerolf

Welcome.. sent me a pm I hone your razor.

And that is what this place is all about.

Hi and welcome. Was your razor still sealed in the box with a factory edge. If so send it to kalerolf for honing. Try to find someone local for learning to hone or buy a good condition cheap razor to practice. Starting with synthetic hones will be much easier to learn. Lynn Abrams and Gssixgun on YouTube have great vids and many of us have used them to teach ourselves but be warned it will take some time and a good bit of practice. Good luck with your shaves and any questions feel free to ask