I'm Lanky and I'm looking at buying a razor. What do you think of my planned kit?

Hey guys,

I'm from Sydney Australia, and I'm looking at buying a straight-edged razor. I have a beard, and want a razor to maintain the edges of my beard. Honestly, I never much liked shaving with disposable three-blade monstrosities, and especially hated constantly buying new blades and having nearly no way of maintaining disposable blades. I want to take control of my facial hair, and feel a straight razor is the best tool to do that.

I popped into Men's Biz, a local shaving boutique, and they put me into this forum along with some other resources. At the moment I'm looking at a number of items, and I'm wondering what the saged wisdom of this site's members have to contribute to that.

The items I'm looking at are as follows:

Dovo Solingen 5/8 straight razor in classic black. This seems like one of the top brands around, and is a fairly well recommended razor as far as I can tell, which I can also find new affordably.

Men's Biz Super Badger Hair Shaving Brush. I understand super badger is the best kind of brush (am I correct here or have I been misled?), but I don't want to spend too much on a brush.

Dovo Solingen 2-Sided Prima Rindleder Strop with 45x300mm stropping area. Again a top brand. I understand the strop might be a bit small and would necessitate stropping with an x-pattern? I imagine I could learn this easy enough, but am I underestimating the challenge?

Shaving creams / soaps and styptics: I'm really not sure how to proceed to be honest. My skin is pretty sensitive and I find it can react quite negatively, so I'm probably going to play this by ear. With styptic, I understand witch hazel can be a good alternative? I ask because I know it doesn't set off my skin. There are also shaving creams (not the kind of rubbish you get in a can) which I find work for my skin. Is there anything I should be avoiding or looking for with the shaving creams / soaps?

Hones: I know this isn't exactly essential, but I can't help but look. I've seen some top-end glass and ceramic hones, but these are big expenditure, especially since I see both 4000 and 8000 grit hones being recommended.
I've found a Taidea 3000-8000 white corundum dual-sided hone for less than a tenth of the price of the ceramic or glass ones. Other than that I find second hand ones rarely in good condition and I have no way of knowing how they hold up. Are Taidea any good, does anyone know? They seem to specialise in kitchenware, but 3000-8000 grit is incredibly fine for kitchenware. Would it do the job, or could it do harm to my razor? Would I be better off just holding off until I can afford a serious one?

Thanks guys. It's good to be part of this community!

Lanky

I would say try to buy 3inch strop.

Buy cheap and spend more later on.

Avoid hones for while , concentrate on shaving and stropping..

Get your new blade pro honed.

Good luck and welcome.

Lanky, first, welcome to SRP. Yeas, we are a great source of information.

1. Dovo is a good staring brand. 5/8 is a good starting size. Make sure it is a round tip. Helps avoids nicks and cuts.

2. From my point of view a brush is a brush is a brush. Buy what you can afford and look for inexpensive brushes in Boar, Horsehair and synthetics to try to find what kind you really will like.

3. Like all parts of wet shaving there are many choices. I usually recommend a cheap 3" strop because, no matter what, you are going to nick and cut it till you develop good stropping skills. There are several levels of "draw" in strops so be careful in choosing. You being in Australia eventually a Roo strop might suit the bill (medium draw on that one.)

4. With sensitive skin go for any unscented soap or cream. Shaving creams are easier to build a lather with than hard soaps. Wide range in brands and prices here. Can be a bottomless pit. Get a styptic pencil also.

5. As for stones, DON'T. Learn the shaving end of this first. Learn it well. There are a number of Australian members on SRP that hone for a small cost. Find them and use them for at least a year (with proper maintenance you shouldn't need their services much after an initial honing. Light touch up along the way. First step in honing would be, after that first year, would be learning how to touch up your own razors (only one stone needed for that.)

Good luck and ask many questions. QWe are here to answer (lots of members with lots of answers.)

Thanks for the prompt response, guys.

I'll avoid the hones for now. The 3 inch / 75mm strop seems to be a recurring thing. With this in mind, is there any reason why I should pick a paddle or a flexible strop? It seems an issue with the flexible strops is the need to pull them tight; is this serious enough a difficulty to prefer a paddle?

Lanky, here's the problem with bench strops and hanging strops: It all depends on how heavy a hand you have. I started out with a hand that has always put a lot of pressure on anything I was handling. Found out fast that heavy pressure in wet shaving leads to disasters of all kinds. Found that with a stable, or bench strop, I had to learn light pressure (close to hopefully nothing more than the weight of the razor on the strop) was the key to keeping a shaveable edge. Heavy pressure tended to dull the edge rapidly and I spent a fair sum having them touched up before I learned to lighten my touch. Once pressure amounts are learned a hanging strop in better tin the long run. I went as far as to insert a thin strip of wood almost the length of my hanging strop(s) and hold them with Velco bands top and bottom to make sure that I would be using a light, almost no pressure stroke in honing. The best way to find out if you prefer a paddle or hanging strop is to place a hanging strop on a flat surface (the edge of a table) and try that and then free hanging. Many suggest that a hanging strop needn't be pulled totally taut. That a slight ease, with light pressure will give you the desired edge quality. I am constantly reminding my self of basics and finding areas that I need improvement in. This is a fluid hobby with good challenges along the way.

Hi Lanky,

If you buy a Dovo, fine, but make sure that it's shave-ready. And it's not because in a store they say it is, that it will be shave-ready.
Therefore, ask around to see what the good providers are in Oz. I have seen quite a few new Dovo's with quality issue which didn't shave at all. Although theoretically they're supposed to shave out of the box. Then again, it's the problem cases that found their way to my place, not the many good ones. In any case, it ruined the brand a bit for me, and I would rather buy a Ralf Aust or Revisor (if a new razor is required) or better still, a vintage razor, expertly honed by someone who knows what they're doing.

If there's no budgettary restraints, I would go for a silvertip badger. If there are restraints, there are really really good synthetic brushes on the market. A friend recently gave me a cheap synthetic one, and ... it's all I've been using ever since, although I have quite a few top-brand brushes.

Whatever strop you buy, don't buy something expensive as it's likely you will ruin it. Note that I'm prejudiced, as I ruined my first two strops within a year or so.

As was said above: forget about hones at the moment. Seriously.

Hi and welcome. Buying in Aus can be restrictive as there still aren't too many retailers. You should steer clear of honing for the moment till you can shave and strop properly. OZ is in Sydney and is able to hone for you which you will need as suppliers here don't hone. Check out the stray Whisker for some better brushes. The Dovo strop is small and in my opinion over priced for what you get. Have a good read here and a good look at what is available online you might be surprised what you can get as Aus suppliers are exe IMO. Good luck and any questions feel free to ask

Welcome from SE Washington State USA.

You'll find local help at this link and not just help but Expert help there in Sydney. Send a PM to OZ, he's a great guy and a good mate and he won't steer you wrong!

http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/onimaru55.html

We can write and write, recommend and recommend but to have One on One will teach you more in a few hours than reading and watching can do for months!

Take your time, go slow. It's a long strange trip but well worth the journey. :tu

So you recommend starting cheap with a strop. So, jump on ebay and find anything for $20? What are the minimum things I should be looking for, or will any cheap strop do the job?

No cheap ebay strops!!!!!! A cheaper good quality strop. Something like the Illinois Razor co strops or a decent quality strops with replacement pieces are good choices. Cheap ebay strops are more likely to damage a razor than improve the edge. Do contact Oz he is very knowledgeable and will have you sorted no worries. When the time comes for honing he can help there too. If I was anywhere within a few hours I would hit him up.

Check out SRD I know postage is exe but you will likely pay less per item (especially if you get a package deal) and the razor comes hones which will save 25-30 bucks straight out.

Thanks for the response. 'No cheap ebay strops' was the reply I was expecting to be honest. I've messaged Oz to say hi, and I'll get in touch with him before buying anything.

Hey Lanky
Welcome to the 'Place'

I'm north of the coathanger so if it's not too big a trip you should drop in & I can show you everything I know.... if you got 10 minutes :)

Welcome to the forum. :)