Thread: Looks like I'm the new guy.

Hey guys, I am Adam. I am a college student who is sick of spraying goo on my face and shaving with 28 blade razors that only leave razor burn and stubble behind. I have not even had the privilege of shaving with anything else yet but my straight razor and supplies are in the mail as i type. I stumbled on this site when researching care and maintenance of my new razor. I guess I can ask the question i have here and i will post it in the right section later if i don't get an answer here.
I bought a strop as i know i need one and it comes with the leather strop as well as a canvas part. I would like to maintain my razor as long as possible without having to send it to be honed or in my case buying honing stones and learning to do it myself. But my main question is can i apply red or green paste to the canvas? or can you only apply white paste?

Welcome to SRP. So, what did you buy. I am sure we would all love to hear what is in your shaving arsenal.

Welcome to SRP. Awesome user name... And pretty good pirate name!

--Shoki

Congrats on starting your straight razor shaving journey.

If the strop you purchased is the only one you have I wouldn't use any pastes on it. If you want to put the paste on something get yourself a piece of balsa wood to put it on. You will want to strop your razor on the cloth and then the leather portions of the strop prior to using it each time. Pastes are abrasive and you only want to use them when stropping no longer is keeping the edge. Most people can get 30+ shaves out of a razor before it needs anything more then general stropping.

I went with a Boker King Cutter, a Fromm Strop, proraso shaving cream and a parker badger hair brush. I am really excited to feel this shave. Im sick of razor burn and the woman loves the baby smooth face so im hoping these will take care of both.

Originally Posted by Shoki

Welcome to SRP. Awesome user name... And pretty good pirate name!

--Shoki

Ya the guys on my rugby team kinda gave me the name after shaving different shapes into my beard for games....it stuck and seemed appropriate for the forum.

Originally Posted by CarrieM

Congrats on starting your straight razor shaving journey.

If the strop you purchased is the only one you have I wouldn't use any pastes on it. If you want to put the paste on something get yourself a piece of balsa wood to put it on. You will want to strop your razor on the cloth and then the leather portions of the strop prior to using it each time. Pastes are abrasive and you only want to use them when stropping no longer is keeping the edge. Most people can get 30+ shaves out of a razor before it needs anything more then general stropping.

OKAY thanks. I just wasn't sure if paste could or was supposed to go on linen or if i should use it alone. I had never heard of stropping on linen before a couple days ago so i wasnt sure how to use it. I will look into the balsa wood thing though a 5 dollar block of wood seems much more practical than buying another strop for paste.

Originally Posted by Weirdbeard

...Im sick of razor burn and the woman loves the baby smooth face so im hoping these will take care of both.

Welcome to SRP - from another relative newcomer.

Now, I don't want to dampen the enthusiasm by raining on your parade, but I hope you understand you are in for a long and steep learning curve - especially if you are coming straight from multi-blade cartridges. The baby-butt smooth (BBS) shave will take some time to achieve and you may often feel like giving up along the way...

The important thing is that you mentally sign up for the long-haul and commit yourself to enjoying the journey. Good luck!

Welcome to SRP.
The white paste is for the linen component if you choose to use it but bear in mind any abrasive will magnify your stropping mistakes so get that under your belt first.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Welcome to SRP.
any abrasive will magnify your stropping mistakes so get that under your belt first.

!!! I'm totally gonna steal this line, so true thanks oz

welcome weirdbeard