Thread: Hello from la Belle Province

Hello everyone,
After my last haircut I realized I really liked how clean a shave I got when they did the back of my neck and sideburns with a striaght razor so I thought I`d give it a try myself.
Im from Montreal and am anxiously awaiting my first straight razor. I started of off looking for a razor on Amazon and quickly got confused by the plethora of offerings and mixed reviews. Much more googling was done and I found this site. After readinga lot on here over the last couple of weeks I bought a Dovo Best Quality 5/8 Full Hollow Blade. Hopefully I wont scalp myself. The begginer guide has been quite useful and I can only hope the article on the first striaght razor shave will keep me from doing to bad a job. I like how it is written and it`s suggestion that I not try and do my whole face at once, baby steps seems the sensible approach to me. Honestly I probably would have slit my throat if I hadnt found this forum.
I expect to recieve the razor next week and will gladly post my impressions. I do have a couple of questions I havent seen answered here yet but as they arent pressing and as I have mostly spent time reading the begginers stuff I will wait until I peruse more of the forum to avoid repeating already answered questions.

Hello and welcome Alan

Sounds like you were very sensible in your approach to getting into shaving with a SR. Nothing beats doing a lot of research before making your first purchase, congrats on that. Don't worry everyone is a bit nervous at the beginning, slow and easy does the trick there. Did you buy your Dovo from a vendor that supplies it shave ready?

There are a few members from PQ here and at least one from Montreal. I am sure they will be along shortly but would suggest you have a face to face meet up with them if possible. That is the best way to learn a bit more.

Bob

Welcome to the forum - this is the place to learn everything you need to know about straight razors as well as being a great and fun community to be a member of.

Read the Beginners sections, if you have a questions, usually the search box on the top right hand side will lead you on many hours of fascinating reading.

I'm in Toronto, feel free to message me if you need any help.

Welcome to the forum. There are quite a few Canadians here, a few from Montreal. There is also three pretty good shaving shops in Canada, which reduces shipping time more than anything. You never know how long CBS might decide to store your mail. There is a lot to learn. There are a lot of very sharing people here.

Hello Alan,

You came to the right place. Do not hesitate should you have any questions.

Welcome to SRP Alan. Where did you order your Dovo from and was it sold as "shave ready"? Factory edges are often sub par and having it professionally honed can make or brake the experience.

Welcome ! also from Northern California

Originally Posted by BeJay

Welcome to SRP Alan. Where did you order your Dovo from and was it sold as "shave ready"? Factory edges are often sub par and having it professionally honed can make or brake the experience.

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?

Originally Posted by Phrank

Welcome to the forum - this is the place to learn everything you need to know about straight razors as well as being a great and fun community to be a member of.

Read the Beginners sections, if you have a questions, usually the search box on the top right hand side will lead you on many hours of fascinating reading.

I'm in Toronto, feel free to message me if you need any help.

We don't need no help from Toronto here in Montreal
Seriously though thanks for the offer. If I think of something I'll drop you a note.

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?

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