New to this, from a limited-availability country!
Good evening, everyone!
I'm completely new to this, I actually got into straight razors through bladesmithing. Need to know and use one before being able to forge a good one!
This seems like something extremely interesting, and I have always been a big fan of very sharp things. I have read through all of the beginner's guide and related links, and some more.
The 'bad' part is that I live in Argentina, and this is a new "hobby" here that is just taking off now. Availability is quite low for most of this stuff, and we can't easily import products from overseas (+50% taxes, 2-3 months for customs clearance, and usually high shipping cost because of uncommon destination, if shipping is even offered at all).
For that reason, I am starting with something that is quite far from recommended, and I am fully aware that it will make my first experience a lot worse than it could be, but I won't be scared away form straight razors just for this reason. My new razor is going to arrive this weekend, made locally out of good steel (but most likely not shave ready, maybe not even close). A leather strop (luckily good quality leather is highly available here!), a boar brush and some shaving soap is also on the way.
I'll just add one question to my introduction. I do not (yet) have the equipment nor the experience to correctly hone a razor, and I would like to have it done the first time by a pro, but I don't even know how to start looking for one here. Do you have any ideas in order to find one?
If I can't find one I'll probably buy some 'japanese' (as japanese as available here) stones and take my time to learn how to properly hone (already know how to correctly sharpen a knife so far), but it will be a lot more effort without a good first example.
Thanks, and I hope I can get enough experiences over time to share!