Thread: New beginning

Howdy Folks

Once upon a time, I bought a straight razor kit and tried my hand at shaving and blade maintenance. I was getting the hang of shaving, but maintaining sharpness eluded me. I threw in the towel and listed my razor and whetstone on eBay along with a little story about why I was selling the equipment. The items were purchased by none other than SRP resident, PaulFLUS. He encouraged me to try again and seek help here at SRP. So, here I am. I'm gonna check out the library, see what I can learn, and try to figure out some good equipment to acquire.

Hey, while I'm here, does anyone know which came first: Straight Razor Place or Sharp Razor Palace? Was one name inspired by the other?

Welcome
The reading will serve you well. There is a lot to learn but take it slow. You cannot do it all at once.

Straight Razor Place came first. Sharp Razor Palace is fairly recent. How it came about is a long story.

Hello and welcome to SRP.
Give it another go, take your time and enjoy the forum.

Pete <:-}

Welcome to the forum. Read lots on the subjects you need to know and feel free to ask questions to clarify anything you have read but don't quite understand.

Bob

Glad you're here Eric! Don't worry, you'll get it. There are lots of good folks here to guide you in the right direction. As stated there is a lot of information on the site but if something is not clear or you want to ask questions or get more input you can always ask . Someone, or usually several people will chime in. I am always available if you want to pm me also. Soak it up and have fun. There is a lot here besides razor stuff too.

Maintaining the blade edge can be little tricky, but at the end of the day not any more complicated than the other skills you need. I think a lot of us take a winding road over time.

Bottom line, a strop with leather and linen can maintain your "shaveable" edge for a long long time... and quite possibly indefinitely. It won't be a laser edge, but you could get a decent 3 pass shave with it.

Adding some sort of maintenance to it will keep your keen edge indefinitely. It can be a "good" synthetic 8K (Naniwa and Shapton I'm looking at you...), 10K, or 12K; a natural hone (black/trans Ark, cuticle, etc.); or a $20 vintage barber hone (Swati, etc.). Pasted strops, or even paste on balsa wood, is a another way to get as are lapping films in the 10K range. On Reddit there are even folks selling a fiberglass like strop that is a mild abrasive and will maintain keenness. Bottom line, there's plenty of solutions under $100 (and even as low as $10) to give you an indefinite edge.

Many of us here on the forum are hobbyiests chasing the ultimate edge (keenest, smoothest, what have you) that well exceeds the needs of the average daily user. I went 10 years with just a cotton & leather strop and a "PHIG" (which I don't recommend), then one day started down the hone rabbit hole and now I've got about $1500 in rocks. But at the end of the day, keeping a shaveable edge is not rocket science nor does it require a graduate degree in geology or materials science.

Welcome aboard, Eric. Enjoy your time hear.

Hi Eric, Welcome back to straight shaving.

I haven't been straight shaving long and the guys here were very supportive.

Because I am still new at this strange and badass way of shaving I think I am probably in a pretty good position to answer some of your very basic new shaver questions. I still remember how frightened I was when I shaved (and cut myself) the very first time. In fact most of the guys here remember my 6th attempt LOL cos I made a video and showed em. That video got me so much useful advice and moved me far up the learning curve quickly so if you have problems that you can't explain properly, get your ipad out, and shave in front of it so we can all watch and help.

Steve

Hi and welcome aboard. Plenty of info here. There's lots of choices for equipment too. Best to just get the basics and stick with them till you learnt them. Variety is great but makes learning harder. Good luck

Welcome to the forum.