hi all,

I'm Jos from the Netherlands and I'm 21 years 'old'. my fascination for straight razors is still quite fresh, but I've been a knifeboy for some time now. a while ago i bought myself a nice looking SR from ebay. damast, buffalo horn and camel bone handle filings on the back and all. it looked great and the noobie as i was i bought it only to find out it came with a edge about as round as your average butter knife. i tried to re profile it a bit, but my god what a rough shave it is.

I'm here in Norway for my last week of internship, and i decided to bring my trusty philishave with me instead of the razor. having had a goatee for a few years i decided to back to a clean shave, and it feels pretty good i must add. however this was the last act of my old friend philishave, it died on me not a minute after the goatee came of.

so now I'm here at the SRP. and what better time to look for a good SR then then after the dead of an old machine.

now i've been looking into straight razors for some time and i quite like the DOVO Ebony & Silver Steel 5/8 razor. because lets face it, I'm a student and i can't really afford any of the high end razors. so i need something that doesn't break the bank but is a decent razor nonetheless. is this razor a good choice?

furthermore i've been looking into some stone the go along with the razor and found out something about Coticule stones, Ardennes Coticule - Producer of the Coticule whetstone!. are they any good for straights?

finally a last question. i have this skin decease Eczema, Eczema - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. basically i have a dry, flaky skin that is easily irritated. now i use this special soap made of Olives that my skin can bear. I've used it for shaving this morning using a Gillette fusion and it went fine. so what i want the know is: do i need lather to shave with a straight, or will this soap do too.

well, this is some introduction and i applaud he who made it through. i hope you can answer some of these questions.

cheers,
Jos