Greetings from Northern Virginia!

Hi,

I've been thinking about taking the plunge for several months now. After a particularly boring meeting on Monday, I ended up purchasing some equipment to keep me busy. I should be getting my Dovo half-hollow tomorrow and various equipment (strop, soap, brush, bowl, hone). Sadly, I just found out about the marketplace on this site the day after ordering, but I'll definitely check it out in the future.

I have sensitive skin that dries out easily and no matter what I seem to do, cartridge razors end up giving a painful shave after 2-3 uses and they're so expensive. The couple of times I've had a real straight razor shave at the barber shop, my face has felt great, and I'm ready to work toward feeling that way after every shave. I appreciate the lost art of the SR shave and I really appreciate all of the great posts I've been reading on these forums the last couple of days while I anxiously await my new razor!

Would you recommend buying a second cheaper blade for honing practice, and if so, any specific recommendations?

Welcome. First off where did you purchase the razor? If not from Straight Razor Design it may not be shave ready. Second learn to shave first. Once you are comfortable with that then you can look into honeing. Razors are not sharpened the same as a knife. If you never use a professionally honed razor you will not know when you have honed your razor correctly yourself.

Hello from Tidewater VA!

I bought a cheaper blade (Gold Dollar 208) for practice. Damndest thing happened, my expensive daily shaver was the one that I always seemed to be honing because it would get dinged on the faucet, dropped (resist the catch instinct!), left in the bathroom and rusted...the list goes on.

Knowing now what I didn't know then, my suggestion is get a shave ready razor that's been honed by someone that knows what they're doing. I dunno where you got your blade from but my recommendations are Straight Razor Designs (they own & run this site as well), Whipped Dog, or the classifieds here. Make sure to ask if they used tape on the spine.

Get yourself a barber hone or whatever finisher trips your trigger (maybe ask the person that honed your razor what they used last if you like the edge it makes). And use that for touch ups to keep your razors shaving. Then slowly work down grits as needed if you want to learn to hone.

And if you're gonna ignore the good advice (like I did) a lot of folks start with a Norton 4/8 combination hone or a Naniwa 3/8 combination as their first stone with good results. Both lines have solid 1K options for bevel setting, and from either 8K stone you can go anywhere you want to go. Natural finishers, higher grit synthetics, the world is your proverbial Oyster (call me biased, but Chesapeake Bay or riot!)

I purchased through Amazon, so it's factory sharpened but not true shave-ready. I have a friend who has experience honing blades (both knives and straight razors) so I'll probably have him come over and do mine and teach me the ropes, though I'm willing to learn from any honemeisters in northern VA/central MD area.

So long as he shaves with straights too, I imagine you're in good hands. Kinda cool to have someone that close to learn from. Hopefully he'll have you up & running quick. Took me a good amount of trial & error doing the distance learning program.

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Originally Posted by Marshal

So long as he shaves with straights too, I imagine you're in good hands. Kinda cool to have someone that close to learn from. Hopefully he'll have you up & running quick. Took me a good amount of trial & error doing the distance learning program.

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I don't think he does on a regular basis, but he definitely has the honing skills. There's a couple of people who keep coming back to him for their $1000+ custom blades, though he really only does this as a side gig from his regular job.

Welcome to SRP!!!
There's a lot of great folks, as you've seen
Enjoy and have fun!!

good advice. the only thing i would add would be to avoid buying a cheap (ie. gold dollar) razor to learn to hone on (once you've got the hang of shaving and maintaining the blade.) there are plenty of good vintage blades one can find that don't have quality issues to make the job more difficult than need be. But until then, enjoy the ride!

Welcome to SRP! I agree with what others have already said; for practice honing, get a decent vintage blade preferably from the B/S/T forum section here. I've seen nice razors go for $50 or less. Just check periodically, and you will find something very decent. Good luck with your straight razor shaving adventures...it's so much fun to shave this way.

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Originally Posted by MikeyG

I don't think he does on a regular basis, but he definitely has the honing skills. There's a couple of people who keep coming back to him for their $1000+ custom blades, though he really only does this as a side gig from his regular job.

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Well, the reason I mention it is knives only have to be sharp. Doesn't matter so much how it feels against the skin because (ideally) it'll never touch that anyway. And of course we've seen new guys that drop their razors off at the local 'knife sharpener' and found out that the knife guy doesn't know how to hone a razor.

Razors have to be both sharp, and comfortable to shave with. Which means a good razor stone, and hands that know how to create that comfortable edge. But, if he's shaved with them before and has return customers for straights then it's a good sign he knows his way around a razor hone. Especially if they're pricey customs.

I've been slowly teaching my knife making friend how to use his hones on Saturdays, when he teaches me how to forge knives. Maybe one day our skill sets will overlap. Good times. :beer1:

Welcome to the forum. :)

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Originally Posted by Marshal

I've been slowly teaching my knife making friend how to use his hones on Saturdays, when he teaches me how to forge knives. Maybe one day our skill sets will overlap. Good times. :beer1:

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That sounds like a great way to spend some Saturdays.

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome! Reading through the forums I've been impressed with the welcoming and supportive community here so far.

-Mike

Hello and welcome to SRP!
Enjoy yourself here on the forum.

Pete <:-}

Hi and welcome aboard. Any questions feel free to ask

Hello, and welcome. Just make sure your razor is shave ready. by having it hone by a pro. That will take out 1 variable, so you can concentrate on on learning on how to shave with a straight!!

Welcome to SRP, I will agree with the info already given. Learn to shave first and foremost shave the lather as they say. Light pressure especially since you stated you have sensitive skin. Map your beard so you know which way the hair is growing. Start slow and do pieces of your face at a time. Start with 1 cheek and once you feel you can shave that with comfort and ease then do both sides. Prep of your beard is very important if you don't properly prep your beard then shaving it will not be much fun. Blade angle is important as well but it changes on different parts of your face so you will learn that in time.

Learning to hone and shaving at the same time is a difficult task. This is what I did and for every success I have I also have 2 failures which I learn from. I would recommend getting a barber hone or a 12k hone to maintain your razor first. As you get more into this and possibly start restore work then maybe look into different stones but for now maintaining your razor will be a great starting point. I would also recommend staying away from Gold Dollars, they have issues right from the box and IMO you will not learn anything but frustration from trying to hone these things. You can buy vintage blades for around $12 on ebay if you do some looking and you can use these to learn on, much better steel and in the end you can have a usable razor.
Well this is enough rant from me for now :D feel free to ask any questions everyone on here is very helpful and there is lots of great advice on this forum. Best of luck :D