Thread: Hi from Florida

Welcome aboard Terry. You will never know unless you at least try it. You will find that using a straight razor give a much better, closer & smoother shave when honed & stropped correctly. Like Tc said, you don't need to learn to hone right away, just send it out to a pro & also buying from the classifieds here is a great idea because many selling razors will indeed be shave ready rather than ones on eBay. No member here is going to chance getting a bad reputation by selling a straight razor that is supposed to be shave ready & not be. Give it a go & try it. You won't go back. Your main tool you will need is a strop, then a good brush, soap & mug. You can practice stropping using a dull knife or butter knife to avoid cutting a strop & dulling a straight razor blade. A little practice & you will be amazed at what you learn.
The first time I used a straight razor, it was like the difference between dialup & high speed internet. You never go back to dialup. Oh & there's nothing wrong with using a double edge razor either because they still sell blades for them plus there are many brands out there to try & you can buy sample packs to try different brands out. I will use a DE when I don't have time to use a straight razor. Great to have you here.
Good luck my friend.

Welcome! Its never too late to get started, and dont let the choices get to you!

And as mentioned, dont let the honing options get to you either... Just get two razors, get them both professionally honed, and then you will always have one ready to use when you have to send one of the razors out again for honing.

Heck, when I started out, I even had a couple of sellers send razors I bought directly to honers!

Ya your not really an old geezer here in this forum, big majority of guys here been around to watch howdy doody on tv, Good for you on taking the advise, it's free and most of the time it's good, like I mentioned the classifieds right now have some very inexpensive, yet good razors to start out with. Welcome. Tc

Welcome to the forum Terry. It looks like from those ads that those razors are shave ready, so the issue of a pro hone is not really relevant. You should earn to shave and then hone. Of course you will need a strop and the rest of the trimmings too. Happy shaves ahead. It is not rocket science but it does take quite a few shaves to be good at it.

Welcome to SRP. I'm in Greenacres FL. Give it a try and let us know how it is going.

After a lot of consideration of various razors and combination sets from whippeddog to several SRP classified razors I finally reallized that the best deal of all is SRD's razor and strop packages. I think I am going to go with the Ralf Aust 5/8" Black Straight Razor & Strop Set. I believe I will upgrade to the 3" black latigo strop for another $15.

I may get a shaving mug or scuttle. This is the first I ever heard of a scuttle. Any recommendations would be welcomed.

Also I am thinking of getting either the Xpec unscented or Baume.BE shaving creams. Any comments on the fragrance of the later? Or other recommendations. I am into healthy natural products.

I have a Vulfix 660 Super Badger brush which I am fairly happy with.

Eventually I will get a Norton 4K/8K honing stone with a Norton level set stone.

Instead of the Norton make that a DMT 8 Dia-Sharp Continuous Diamond Coarse - 325 as suggested by JimmyHAD. Also maybe a Naniwa 12K for finishing.

Originally Posted by TJinFL

After a lot of consideration of various razors and combination sets from whippeddog to several SRP classified razors I finally reallized that the best deal of all is SRD's razor and strop packages. I think I am going to go with the Ralf Aust 5/8" Black Straight Razor & Strop Set. I believe I will upgrade to the 3" black latigo strop for another $15.

I may get a shaving mug or scuttle. This is the first I ever heard of a scuttle. Any recommendations would be welcomed.

Also I am thinking of getting either the Xpec unscented or Baume.BE shaving creams. Any comments on the fragrance of the later? Or other recommendations. I am into healthy natural products.

I have a Vulfix 660 Super Badger brush which I am fairly happy with.

Eventually I will get a Norton 4K/8K honing stone with a Norton level set stone.

Then a nice Naniwa 12K for finishing and touch ups

I am looking at the Frederick Reynolds 5/8 with custom scales in the classifieds. Need some help here. What are the implications of a slight smile in the blade for a beginner learning to strop, refurbish, and at some point hone? Would anyone comment on this razor as compared to the Joseph Allen&sons NON XLL Sheffield 6/8 also in the classifieds. I kinda backed off on the later because of the "Sheffield steel (softer and permessive than Solingen) model " NOT XLL" comment. But not really knowing what I am doing could be way off base here. Any comments would be appreciated.

Also if I go the "vintage" razor route does any one have any strop recommendations? I am considering the SRD modular paddle vs their 3" natural hanging strop for $65. I am leaning towards the modular paddle for $89 which seems pricey for a beginner but looking ahead as to what I would need to as I enter into blade refurbishing. Thinking the modular paddle offers more versatility as one gets into diamond pastes and what all.

Terry

Pretty much all razors strop the same. Refreshing and later honing will require you to use a slightly more complicated stroke. However step one is buy a razor. Once you get past that one it is learn to strop and shave. If you think too far ahead you may never move ahead. We will all still be here ready and willing to help. Hanging or bench strop they all accomplish the same thing, however you can easily change out the surface on the modular for refreshing so it does have that as an advantage. I only ever use my bench strop for paste. There are many combinations of gear. Most of us bought what we could afford or what looked cool and then changed stuff out later as we discovered cool stuff at meets and on others love for this and that.

welcome and enyoy of this forum