Thread: Hi from TN

Hello,
I'm Gary (gllh17) from Murfreesboro, TN. I'm 58 years old. I've been lurking around for a week or so and registered a few days ago. SRP forum seems active and full of useful information.

I'm entirely new to straight razor shaving. Actually, I haven't even started yet. Based on my experience as a new hobbyist woodworker as few years ago, I decided to research things a bit before I made a commitment and began buying tools.

I inherited two straight razors from my grandfather and an uncle. One is a Gray and Dubley XXX and the other is a W.A. Case and Sons Preparedness. The G&D is beyond repair I think. Big knick on blade, lots of rust, and the scales are loose and partially broken. The Case is in much better shape. It had some rust and pitting, but no pitting around the blade. Had this been an otherwise decent chisel or hand plane blade it would have definitely been worth a rehab. So that's what I've been doing using information on SRP. Not finished with it, but hopefully it can be a decent number 3 in the straight razor lineup of three that I'm planning. (I know I'll end up with more than 3, but if I don't tell myself it will only 3 or so, I'll realize that I'm as much collector as user and don't need to start collecting other stuff.)

I'd like your thoughts on my plan. I've looked around the internet (no local sr sellers except maybe antique shops). My thought is to initially go with a set rather than buying the stuff individually. I've looked at various places and decided to go with Straight Razor Designs. I'd like to keep the cost at around $300, but will go over a bit if it means a decent upgrade. My experience in woodworking has been that my biggest waste of money has been buying either things I don't use or buying things that aren't that good. As a newbie, I never knew if it was the tools or the technique that was giving unsatisfactory results. I'd like to take the tools part of the equation.

The two sets I'm considering are the Genuine Grey Bone and the Invory Micro Inox, both are 5/8" and are price at about $230 for the basic set. I have no idea what the differences between the two are and how they differ from similar sets offered by SRD. I plan to upgrade the strop to the 3" premium horsehide and upgrade the brush to the Finest Over Stuff Silver Tip #7. I only need one of these sets. I'll search for a second razor after I learn some things from the first one.

I think I have the right kind of honing equipment already. I have quite a bit of sharpening equipment but I think my Norton's 1000, 4000, and 8000 plus my Shapton Pro 12000 seem to be appropriate for the honing.

I've read part of the razor review section and will continue but I'd like you opinion of this as a plan and any recommendations that you have. I realize success is as much a function of experience and perseverance as anything else, but I really want to take equipment failure out of the equation as much as practical.

Hello again and thanks,
Gary

Welcome to SRP Gary, we're glad to have you with us. Your plan sounds great to me, and should learn you a lot about straight razors real fast. When it comes to buying razors, it is hard to go wrong with SRD. They're great people with excellent service and their honing service is impeccable. Your hones are also great, pretty much exactly what is recommended for a full scale of hones.
Read up on the wiki and check out the video subsection, and I am certain your experiences will be great.
Best of luck, and don't hold back on the questions.

str8fencer,
Thanks, I've spent a couple of days looking over the site, wiki, video, and others. Lots of great stuff. The videos are especially useful to a beginner. I haven't seen anyone shave with a straight razor in a while. In fact, outside of the movies (old ones) and barbers (old ones), I'm not sure I ever have. I know my grandfathers did but I don't really remember seeing them.
Thanks again for the welcome,
Gary

Welcome Gary. Your plan sounds good to me, a fellow rookie. I did not buy a set but I bought 1 "premium" razor and a few of vintage razors over a few weeks. The only thing I would add is consider a inexpensive strop to start. Everywhere I read and all the advice I was given was not to invest in my first strop as you will nick and cut it. So my first strop was the poor mans strop from whipped dog. Sure enough I cut and nicked it to hell in the first week. Luckily I was able to repair it with the Help of MAXI but I did rip it up good.

You may have experience on a strop with your tool sharpening and all but my experience was this advice was some of the best I got.

welcome. sounds like you're way ahead of the game. i've only been straight shaving for a month or two now and i'm hoping to get some stones soon. maybe starting with the norton 4k / 8k. good luck as you pursue your journey. you'll learn quick that everyone here is awesome!

I've accumulated quite a bit of sharpening equipment over the last 10-15 years in pursuit of my woodworking hobby. I use hand tools a lot so I need to be able to keep them sharp. I do need to add a razor strop though and I'm probably going to take dyimages advise and go with a whipped dog version first. I have a small paddle strop I made from leather I purchased from Woodcraft several years ago. It has a few nicks on it from carelessness. I'd hate to do that on an expensive one.
Thanks again for the advise. This is a great site. If it weren't for places like this, the internet wouldn't be worth spit.

Originally Posted by gllh17

If it weren't for places like this, the internet wouldn't be worth spit.

there is always Porn

If my wife caught me surfing the porn sites, it wouldn't be safe to have a straight razor in the house. I'd need one very good nick stick.

Welcome Gary. I am a fellow Tennessean (Knoxville) and have been at this for about 5 months now. My initial set cost less than $50 and it worked great. I originally had my grandfathers razor as well and have since shaved with it. WOW! I also have caught a bad case of RAD and have acquired about a dozen or so from Antique stores.

Happy shaves!

Welcome Gary, I'm about 35 miles away from you, TULLAHOMA. I myself started with a $15 razor from an antique store, honed it myself and started shaving. It's hard to do it that way, honing razors is an art that requires patience and a very very steady hand. As mentioned earlier, strop is a good thing to have. Make sure to watch a few videos of stropping, because stropping is where most beginners ruin a very good edge. As for your first straight razor shave, I'm going to highly recommend that you send your razor out to someone for honing the first time. It sounds like you're like me and don't want to hear this, but it will make it so much easier starting with a perfectly honed razor. When it's not quite sharp enough, you don't know if it's your technique or the actual razor that's the problem. But anyways, welcome to SRP and if you're willing to make a short drive, I'll let you try out one of my razors that have been professionally honed, so you can get an idea of what you need to accomplish on the honing end, and I may have one you can use for a while until you get yours fixed