Thread: Hello from la Belle Province

Hi Alan & welcome to SRP. I do hope you ordered your first straight from Straight Razor Designs because Lynn personally hones & strops each straight razor shave ready before it goes to its new home. You will also get a free honing later for when it needs it. I hope you also ordered a strop because as you most likely read in the Beginners Guide, you will need a strop plus a brush, soap & mug. If you ordered it from Dovo, it will most likely need a pro honing which is why I do hope you made your purchase from SRD. You can also practice stropping with a butter knife until you feel comfortable doing so or you will take a chance of cutting a new strop & also compromising the sharp edge of a new straight. If by any chance you do cut your strop, no worries. You can either sand it out or glue it down with super glue or rubber cement. Any questions, just ask.
Good luck my friend.

Originally Posted by AlanQ

I got my Dovo from The Classic Edge.
It was a set including, board strop, brush, soap and oil. They say that they hone the razors themselves and that they are shave ready. They also include a follow up honing.
So I got some time before I have to worry about learning to hone myself.
However this does bring me to 2 questions I was going to ask after more searching on the site.
Aside from being different is there any advantages/disadvantages to a board strop vs regular strop? I liked the idea of a board strop as I dotn really have anywhere to hand a regular stop from.
Also it seems that 5/8 and 6/8 are the more common sizes I went for the 5/8 because I thought go with what's common, because its common for a reason and pick the smaller of the 2 because I thought smaller would be easier to learn on. Was my reasoning sound and is there any actual difference aside from preference on size?

Classic Edge is the best place in Canada to buy a straight razor. He puts a very nice shaving edge on them and has a decent supply of all the extras. Some people find a bench strop an easier way to learn to strop. It is another case of personal preference as far as I can see. There are quite a few videos on how to strop. This is a good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYy3B3v8STo

Originally Posted by RezDog

Classic Edge is the best place in Canada to buy a straight razor.

I couldn't agree more.

Hi and welcome. Seems there is little you need to know but if you do have questions just ask. Cudos for all the research as well. Many end up here as not enough research was done and are now having problems(its how i came here )

Welcome to the Forum, as others have said, you are in the right place.

And the board/paddle strop is a great choice, especially when you are starting out.
My line is that learning to shave with a straight using the web is like learning how to tune and play a piano by correspondence course.
But if you take your time and take advantage of all the reference material it comes together surprising fast.
Please keep us posted and smooth shaving...

Originally Posted by BobH

Phil at the Classic Edge puts a very fine edge on a razor so you should be all set to go there. Do not strop it before the first shave. That lets you feel how a good edge feels and performs. Stopping poorly can degrade a blade instead of helping it especially at the beginner level. I think we have all done that at the start so it's not unusual for that to happen. Strop carefully before the second shave and if the second shave feels worse it is likely your stropping is off a bit.

Both board and hanging strop will do the job. A board strop might even be preferable at the beginning because you don't have to worry about getting the tension right on the strop as you would a hanging strop.

Nothing wrong with the common sizes they work just fine.

Again you seem to have done your research well, congrats,

Bob

Thanks that is very logical advice about stropping. I will definetley try doing it that way

Welcome to the forum.

Ok had my first "shave" today. I'll start with the good.
1. Not only didn't I slice off half my face I didn't even nick myself.
2. Shave was definitely closer than with my Gillette sensor excel. Compared directly both sides of face (I followed the advice and only did one side, sideburn-cheek)

Now for the bad.
1. I just couldn't get that good a line near my ear. I had to finish it off with the Gillette. Just couldn't get my hands to twist the right way or my glasses got in the way. Tried without my glasses on, but vision was way to crappy (Yeah I'm pretty blind). Next time I'll try with my other pair of glasses and see if that helps. Has anyone else had this problem of glasses getting in the way? Worse comes to worse I'll try with contacts on but I'm generally too lazy to put them on when I wake up so I want to be able to shave with my glasses on.
2. It's probably going to be a while before I am comfortable enough to try doing my whole face. I was expecting it to take me a week or 2 at the most now I'm thinking well over a month. But then you never know it is just my first impression.

You've done some research and made a good purchase. I still don't have my own brush, so you will be ahead of some in that aspect.
It looks like you gotten some good advice, so I will just say welcome to the forum from here in the U.S. Take care.

2nd save went similar to the first. I did manage to slightly nick myself but had a slightly easier time with my other glassses with smaller rims/thinner arms. They still got in the way.
Seriously does anyone else have this problem?