Thread: Hello

The big one is stropping. Practice with something other than your shaving razor might not be a bad idea at all. Some do their learning w/ a butter knife, but it would feel alot different than the shank of a razor. Another forum recommends a paddle strop to learn with, but Glen's recommendation of laying the strop on a flat, hard surface might serve this purpose as well. The best thread (with great vids attached) is Glen's 3/11 tips for beginners. I've not found better. Be sure to watch afdavis' fine vids on the 'flip' - or changing direction at the end of a stroke. As a slow learner, I butchered 5 strops. They aren't cheap, so I bought leather & made my own replacement components. All this heartburn for lack of a single detail in stropping - having the edge lifted off the strop surface as the stroke ends. I was trying to do a 'dead' stop, which is near impossible to do. After getting that one detail, my strop no longer ran away screaming when I walked into the room.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ch-2011-a.html

Enjoy your journey. There's help to be had, so don't stay frustrated - post the questions or conditions you want to learn about and you'll be well treated. Then, you'll start getting the best shaves of your life and likely go nuts with the 'AD's. There are ways to equip yourself without going broke - post those questions too. I do recommend learning the shave first, and without trying to learn to hone at the same time. I was too arrogant to listen to that advice and my shaving and edges suffered greatly. Get a good professional (or equivalent) shaving edge, learn the shave, enjoy the bliss. Then take it wherever you want.

Best of luck.