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Hello everyone,
I am 56 Y0 and a complete noob in all aspects of Straight Razors.
I have been using a DE safety for my entire shaving life except for my time in Basic Training when we were not allowed to have them.
So with a first time full pandemic beard I decided to go to a Straight razor for my neck and cheeks so I ordered a Dovo Bismarck and look forward to learning the ways of honing and shaving with it.
Welcome to the forum. You are about the same age as I was when I started to learn to shave with a straight razor so it can be done. Be sure and read the forums library https://shavelibrary.com/w/Shave_Library . It is full of useful and relevant info for a beginner. You may have more questions to after reading it. Enjoy your time here.
Bob
Welcome. New razors come with a factory edge that most likely is not shave ready. Have your razor professionally honed. This will give you a feel for a properly honed razor.
Don't worry about honing right now. First learn to use a straight. Get a decent strop. With proper scrolling you can maintain an edge for some time.
Welcome! Lots of experienced men on here that are eager to help.
Enjoy the ride.
Welcome to the forum.
We stand by ready to help.
We like pics. Lots of pics.
Put your town in your avatar. A member may live nearby
Hello John and welcome to SRP.
I'm in Oakham Ma. if you need anything.
Enjoy your time here on the forum.
Pete <:-}
Welcome, John.
As Leonard was saying After you get the razor send it out for a "Proper Honing". Pick up a second razor too. This way when one needs honing you can send it out and start using the second one. They will tell you it is shave-ready but your odds are 1 in 90 it really is. They don't have the time or effort to properly hand hone them at a factory. Check out our library. There is a great section for beginners. Ask questions. We are more than happy to help. This is something that will take time to learn. it's said that after 100 shaves you start to understand.
Hello John,
I had my first straight razor shave at 57.
You're never too old to start, just start. 3 months or so and it will feel pretty easy.
I've been straight shaving only since Oct 2019 but it feels so natural and i get such a comfortable close shave that I really can't imagine shaving any other way anymore.
Get a spare razor from the Buy, Sell Trade here on the forum. Any razor you buy from the guys here is sure to be sharp and shave ready and anyone here that sells you a razor is 100% trustworthy.
Welcome to the forum
Very welcoming! Thank you all.
I'll be sending the Dovo to be honed for the first time (Any recommendations?) But absolutely plan on learning to hone it my self :) I ordered 2 gold dollars off amazon to start that journey.
I have plenty of knife sharpening stones and equipment but nothing in a high enough grit for razors so that is what I will be on the look out for. I have heard are people having good results with lapping films on glass or might pick up a Norton 4000/8000 combo and a 10-12k stone. but I am not sure yet.
When I decided to learn to hone, the gold dollars had quality issues and needed to be modified in order to be honed. I was just wanting to learn to hone. I bought NOS vintage and new razors to learn with. As new honers tend to put too much pressure on the spine and cause premature wear, I taped them. None of them suffered from my learning and are still in use. It made learning to hone very simple. Later I learned about repair when restoring some vintage razors. There are a lot of people who can hone. Near you is outback (Mike) and easily mailable is Gssixgun (Glen) and countless others. Also there is a lot of opinion and various techniques on YouTube. It’s near impossible to follow all paths at once. I found I learned easily from Gssixgun videos.
Check out Griffiths Shaving Goods. He is based in Rhode Island and from my own personal experience is a very reputable dealer of new and vintage blades as well as hones and strops.
Welcome from another member from New England (Boston metro area here). I second the recommendation to check out Griffith Shaving Goods. Matt, the owner, sells some nice vintage razors and does a good honing job on them. He also sells natural sharpening stones from Rhode Island from time to time, which may be of local interest to you if you take up honing. A couple of them can be used as finishers off, say, an 8k synth hone.
Me, I started shaving and honing straight razors in 2011.
Yep lots of people jump out of a plane before they pack a chute, but hey why shave at all just hone, that way you never know if the edge is good, call it a win win
Learn to shave! Strop!
Stropping can keep an edge keen and ready for shaving for a long time. But improper stropping will damage an edge easy too. That alone is what you should learn to do BEFORE ALL ELSE! Worry about the rabbit hole of honing next year.
Honing takes a long time to learn. It's nothing like sharpening a knife! A lot of us have been down that same road and we try to help others to not make the same mistake. Learn to shave first! After 6 months or so then learn to maintain an edge with a finishing stone or barber hone. Only a few laps are needed. A razor treated properly will not need to be honed very often. Unless your going to be a collector and/or restorer of razors (like most of us are) there is no need to buy all the stones needed for honing. we do have a couple of guys here that still push the film thing but I will leave my comment out of that one. :gaah:
I have a Gold Dollar that I got to practice honing and scaling etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Audels1
The problem is that like most new razors they aren't shave ready and will need honing. That's not actually the problem now i think about it.
The real problem may be finding someone that is willing to hone them.
I was really surprised how sharp mine was after i honed it for practice, actually it's in my rotation until it needs honing again but the initial honing may have been more luck than judgement.
It is still worth getting a vintage razor from here, they are not expensive for something suitable to start with, it will come shave ready and it will be easy to find someone to hone it again when it needs it, bear in mind that the more cheap vintage razors you get yourself the less often that they need honing. I have 14 so I use each one twice a month, that's only 24 times in a year!
There are guys here that have hundreds!
The last thought, if you don't make sure you have a truly shave ready razor you won't be able to tell if your razors are sharp or need refreshing.
as STF and others said, A benchmark pro honing job is about mandatory in this hobby
I will look him up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by STF
I plan on having someone hone the Bismarck and using that for my benchmark and shaving and using the cheapo GDs to learn on.Quote:
Originally Posted by rolodave
Hi John and welcome. Glad to have you with us. As someone who learned the hard way in the dark I can tell you that you that you are well advised to browse and ask lots of questions here. It will make life a lot easier. Don't worry about starting late. Many of us did. Fortunately there are many others of us here with lots of experience who are more than willing to help. Just about anything you could need to know has been posted here already but if you can't find it or don't even know what to look for be sure to ask. Someone will be glad to help you find it or fill you in. I don't think Steve would mind me telling that he really didn't know anything when he came here just a year and a half ago but with some time and help from friends he made here he is now an old hand at it. I'm sure you will be too sooner than you might think.
I would also say that honing is a good skill to have but more importantly learn to strop correctly first. If you learn that right and start off with a truly shave ready razor or 2 you won't need to hone for a while to come. By then you should be proficient enough at straight shaving to be able to tell what is right and what is wrong when learning to hone.
Steve is right that you can be a lot more sure about something that you get from someone here than you will be in the wild. Check bouschie's listings. He always has things for sale at a reasonable price. There are many others here too that sell vintage razors. If you send any of them a PM and explain where you are in the process they will probably point you in the right direction as far as what to buy. This is invaluable since you probably don't even know what kind you like yet.
Anyway, enjoy your time here and make sure to keep us posted on how you're doing. Oh yeah, post pictures of your gear. We love pictures.
PM sent....
Welcome to the forum.
I can understand the comments about learning stropping only and avoiding rabbit holes as a cautionary tale, but I think it also has to do with a question of temperament. The OP, Audels 1, mentioned honing as part of his first post, so that appears to be of interest to him.
Speaking from my own experience in starting out with a straight, being able to hone my own edge was as much of the attraction as was shaving with a straight. Early on, I was lucky to meet up with a straight-razor restorer who let me sit in on some sessions, and from whose example I eventually determined a method that worked for me. From there, I was able to bring back any number of $10-$20 ebay junkers. Learning to strop was sort of baked into the process.
Good luck in your journey, John.
Alan
Brontosaurus makes a good point about wanting to hone a straight to shave ready as much as actually shaving with one. There is great satisfaction in achieving a BBS shave with a straight razor you were able to take from lousy edge to shave ready yourself.
The key thing is to know what a truly shave ready razor looks like (use a loupe) and, more importantly, what shaving with one feels like. That’s the reason we suggest getting an experienced razor honer to get the edge right initially and learning how to properly strop to maintain that edge as long as possible.
Before you fall down the rabbit hole of RAD (by the way, there is a whole section in the beginner section on the acronyms we use ) be aware that there is a lot of garbage on eBay that is presented as shave ready or collectible. Buyer beware!
Brontosaurus and DZEC do make valid points. I guess the most important thing to keep in mind is that if you don't know how to shave with it how would you know if it is right or not? And, if you don't know what shave ready is how would you know if you were there?
I hate to keep picking on Steve but he learned to hone almost right from the start. It's important to note that determination level plays a big part. He was the most eager to learn of anyone I've ever seen.
Props out to you Steve my buddy
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We all have to find our own path. If John wants to learn to hone hell figure it out. There are lots of people here to help him find his way. Trust me, it is a lot harder learning on your own knowing nothing.
Thank you all.
I sometimes forget what the internet is and how easy it is to misunderstand someone's intentions. I also see everyone trying to help in there own way and that is great!!
I never planed on starting blind
And I look forward to asking question and getting answers on the forum.Quote:
Originally Posted by Audels1
I know this may sound odd to some but sharpening is very relaxing to me so much so that when I get stressed I pull all the kitchen knives and stones out and get lost for hours! I see no reason that honing razors can't feel the same way.
Also To me stropping is part of sharpening/Honing so I do plan on learning both.
As for learning to shave I would have though that went without saying. Every thing one sharpens has a specific task ( you don't sharpen a chisel the same way you sharpen fillet knife or a pair of scissors so to knowing how to use them will help in knowing how to sharpen them.
Thanks John
It's all good. Sometimes we old geezers like to pontificate and expound on unrelated details just to hear ourselves talk.:rofl2:
Hi and welcome
Sounds like you're ready to roll. Put pants on that dog and make it wiggle...Quote:
Originally Posted by Audels1
