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Hello dear gents! My name is Steven and I am 29 years old. I work for the Belgian railroad and just got my first straight razor for Valentine from my girlfriend (it's the one from my profile picture). I hope I didn't make a bad choice. I hope to see an active community here
Welcome to this great place. There is no pic showed on your avatar.
Eyoy your stay over here
Will fix that
Now you can see it ;)
Welcome to SRP!
The picture is showing in your avatar but a larger picture would be nice to see. Have you already acquired a strop and shaving brush?
please read the beginner's guide in the wiki it will help with some common issues.
and while we encourage full participation throughout the forum there is a dedicated sub forum for people in your area - BeNeLux
as long as your razor is from a reputable maker and it has been properly honed (factory edges are not really shave ready) it will shave your well.
enjoy,
jim
Welcome. We do indeed have a Benelux forum which is handy for local things.
And of course we have several people from Belgium, including myself :)
Welkom Steven,
There's quite a few countrymen here.
I'm from Duffel myself.
Don't hesitate with your questions, either here, on the benelux subforum, or via pm.
Cheers,
Wim
PS: what razor did you get ? hard to see on the profile pic
Here's the link: http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/22118792...84.m1497.l2648
I hope it's a decent 1
It's a 4/8" which is fairly small for a razor. Most razors are 5/8" - 6/8".
It's vintage Solingen so the razor in itself will probably be good quality.
But I doubt it will be shave-ready, so you'll have to find a way to sharpen it. Normally we advise the new guys to buy a razor already sharpened, but since you have yours already, well, let's deal with this one. I see three options:
- find a volunteer to do it for you (personally I don't have the time the coming few months, sorry!)
- pay a reputable vendor to do it (in the EU)
- if you become member of coticule.be, they will hone one razor for free for you
I'm not sure where you are with your gear, but you will need a strop, brush and a decent soap as well. For the soap, I recently found out that the Essenza shops stock the Scottish Fine Soaps shaving soap, which is a great soap !
Yeah, but I heard you can shave beard patterns better with it. I have such a beard ;-) honing shouldn't be a problem, since I hone at work. And in school I learned to hone chisles... And I got a strop, brush with pig hair and I got Proraso shaving soap
That's good :D
Are you in woodworking ?
You have a hone suitably fine for refining a razor's edge ? 12k Naniwa, 16/30k Shapton, Coticule, some japanese natural hone ... ?
I learned it at school the first 4 years, when got kicked out and had to do something else in a different school. I got a Belgian Blue with a 4k size and 8k size if I remember correctly...
What you call the 8k, that's a yellow-isch stone I assume. In that case, you've got yourself a coticule and you're all set.
How can you sharpen a razor with that stone ? See this page here, look at unicot and dilucot. Straight razor honing - home of the famous Belgian Coticule Whetstone
Cheers!
Wim
It's called Belgian Blue Whetstone that I have. (It's at my parent's home)
If you only have the blue part (supposedly 4k), please read the article about the belgian blue on here: http://www.coticule.be/heritage.html
I thought you had a combination stone i.e. bbw on one side, coticule on the other side.
That would have been better.
Got 2 sides, one soft and one deep blue and hardish
hm, care to post a picture ?
Welcome to the forum. It is indeed best if you get your razor honed before using it. The coticule.be tip is great. I got one of mine honed by the person who made the site and another one by another member. Now I use both as a guideline when I hone my razors.
Hi there. Maybe interesting to know that there is also a Benelux section on this forum.
Enjoy your shaves.