Thread: Cutting my teeth on a Cut-Throat

Greetings, I've lurked on most of the shaving sites I could find for months now and I've finally decided to take the plunge. At my stage in life, I am fortunate enough to have more money than sense, so I jumped in the deep-end and picked up everything I think I will need. If anyone is interested in critiquing the setup I would appreciate knowing where I went wrong or what dangers I should look out for with what I picked up. With that, here is the setup:

Razor: Professionally-Honed DOVO All Stainless Steel, 5/8
Brush: Rooney Shaving Brush, Style 3, Medium, "Super Silvertip"
Strop: American Made 3" Extra Wide Mountain Strop
Shaving Cream: Castle Forbes Essential Oil Shaving Cream
Oops Stick: Pinaud/Clubman "Nick Relief"

Now, if you will indulge me, I have a couple of questions that I could not resolve in my research.

1) Is the "Professionally-Honed DOVO All Stainless Steel, 5/8" shave ready? They had "factory honed" and "professionally honed", but I'm still not sure that means shave-ready.

2) On the recommendation of the wiki here, I did not buy a hone at all. Am I naive enough to believe that you can, for the life of the razor, merely keep it sharp using the fabric and leather sides of the strop? This was one aspect of the whole straight razor business I found a hard time finding an answer to.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to liberal use of the styptic pen as I wander down the road of straight razors as I will use it for both my head and face.

Regards,

Bodach, cut-throat in training

Others more knowledgable than me will chime in but I will attempt to answer. First welcome to SRP you will find everyone here to be super helpful. Okay questions yes, I don't have experiance with classicshaving myself but I hear good things if they say it's professionally honed I believe you can trust them. 2nd on is harder but I'll try. No, you will not be able to keep the razor perfectly shave ready forever with only a strop, yet buying an expensive natural or synthetic stone is not your only choice. If you are just looking to maintain an edge that is already shave ready a barber hone or a second strop dusted with CrOx or diamond paste. You can also use the CrOx or Diamond paste on a block of balsa wood to do touch ups. That said you should be able to get at least a couple months with only the strop as long as you are careful and do not roll the edge with poor stropping. As I said in the beginning I am new, and everything I said was how I interpreted what others have said so I could be wrong and others will correct me if I am.

Originally Posted by thehekler

Others more knowledgable than me will chime in but I will attempt to answer. First welcome to SRP you will find everyone here to be super helpful. Okay questions yes, I don't have experiance with classicshaving myself but I hear good things if they say it's professionally honed I believe you can trust them. 2nd on is harder but I'll try. No, you will not be able to keep the razor perfectly shave ready forever with only a strop, yet buying an expensive natural or synthetic stone is not your only choice. If you are just looking to maintain an edge that is already shave ready a barber hone or a second strop dusted with CrOx or diamond paste. You can also use the CrOx or Diamond paste on a block of balsa wood to do touch ups. That said you should be able to get at least a couple months with only the strop as long as you are careful and do not roll the edge with poor stropping. As I said in the beginning I am new, and everything I said was how I interpreted what others have said so I could be wrong and others will correct me if I am.

thehekler,

So at some point, no matter how well I do at stropping against both a cloth and leather strop, I will dull the blade enough that there is no recourse but to 'hone' the blade? Is this an accurate statement?

Regards,

Bodach - Cut-Throat in Training

Just remember that the leather strop is not a tool to sharpen your razor,so light pressure,just the weight of the blade, when stropping.Think of stropping as a method that just smooths out that fine sharp edge.When i started stropping i used to much pressure (because i thought i would get a sharper edge) and ended up rolling the edge!!!!Plus I would get another shave ready razor as a back-up, when you send one out for honing.Hope this helps and WELCOME ABOARD!!!!

Originally Posted by nessmuck

Just remember that the leather strop is not a tool to sharpen your razor,so light pressure,just the weight of the blade, when stropping.Think of stropping as a method that just smooths out that fine sharp edge.When i started stropping i used to much pressure (because i thought i would get a sharper edge) and ended up rolling the edge!!!!Plus I would get another shave ready razor as a back-up, when you send one out for honing.Hope this helps and WELCOME ABOARD!!!!

nessmuck,

From everything I've read I'm so scared to put any pressure at all on the strop, is there any danger in not putting 'enough' pressure? By that I mean if I merely drag the blade's weight along the strop is that enough or do I need to learn the 'finesse' of just enough but not too much pressure on the stop?

This is extremely fun, but wholly frustrating at the same time. I'm sure everyone that reads this understands it wholly.

Regards,

Bodach

Good advice which you read all the time here is "just the weight of the razor" but the strop with a high draw may give you a different interaction to a strop that is icy slick. Still you need to resist the temptation to push down as opposed to pushing laterally. That is the finesse aspect. There is an amount of pressure that is appropriate & the figure may be arbitrary as a big honking 9/8 wedge will be heavier than a 3/8 trimmer but essentially the weight of the razor will do.

Also bear in mind that ruining your strop will take a toll on your edge, yes you can buy another strop but you may also need to buy another honing.

If your razor is initially shave ready, you only need to keep it that way.

For this purpose (the traditional barber's situation), you can get by with a strop and an inexpensive ($10-$15 on ebay) small barber's hone.

The first problem you're going to have is that you will dull the razor by improper stropping.

Shave at least once with the razor without doing anything to the blade first so that you know what a sharp razor feels like.

I'm also fairly knew at this, but I'll pass on a critical piece of advice: When stropping or honing the most important thing is to use no force at all downwards. You should glide the razor across the strop (spine leading) or stone (edge leading). The object of the strop is to straighten a delicate edge. Any force will dull it instead. Similarly for honing. This will take some practice in the beginning, as you have a natural inclination to push down.

The same concept applies to shaving. Don't push down. Glide the blade. Don't force if it snags: That's when you'll get cut. Under the nose, at the corners of the mouth, under the lip on over the chin are the hard parts. Learn how to shave your cheeks and throat first and get confidence before attempting the hard parts. Shave with the grain first and learn that. Then across the grain in places. Leave against the grain until you've mastered everything else.

Cold water works almost as well as a styptic pencil. Try finishing with a cold water rinse each time.

A good lather as lubricant is essential ("dry shaving" used to be an alternative to "riding out of town on a rail" and "tarring and feathering"). A bad lather is easy to spot: The foam will fade within seconds to let your face show through. A small amount of castor oil (found in pharmacies) or even corn oil will improve lubrication.

Keep your hands dry and clean so that you don't fumble the razor. If you drop it, it'll probably break (and you'll be out the cost) or hit you (and the co-pay will be as bad as breaking the razor).

Have a dry washcloth to set the razor down on when you need to or before and after shaving. Make sure there are no water droplets inside the case, on the case or on the blade after shaving. Let dry partially open in a safe place for 5-10 minutes at least.

Good advice tho you can safely put the razor down on a flat hard surface if it is closed to 45º or so. The scales will prevent the edge contacting.

That is really nice strop. You'll have to start really slow if you don't want to nick it up. Most suggest something simple like a Filly strop from ruprazor.com to start so as to nick that instead of your fine strop.

slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I started really slow and only made one big nick on my practice strop, and none on my nice strop that I'm using now (knock on wood).

Sounds like a great kit, you'll love straight shaving once you get over the learning curve.

Originally Posted by jeffegg2

That is really nice strop. You'll have to start really slow if you don't want to nick it up. Most suggest something simple like a Filly strop from ruprazor.com to start so as to nick that instead of your fine strop.

slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I started really slow and only made one big nick on my practice strop, and none on my nice strop that I'm using now (knock on wood).

Sounds like a great kit, you'll love straight shaving once you get over the learning curve.

I do not mean to seem callous, but if I ruin this strop I will just buy a replacement. What I mean is I would like to learn on the best gear I can afford. I am gratified that you like the strop and it gives me confidence that the stop will serve me well to keep the blade sharpened for a while. Thank you much.

Bodach