Hello shaving fellows of the single blade,

I am new to this forum and am a relatively new straight razor shaver. I am an Italian Brit, born and raised in Kenya and Sri Lanka and currently residing in Belgium (the is more but very tedious to write, let alone read).

I have been shaving with a Dovo Shavette for near on 7 years (the last 4 of which I have been a regular Shavette shaver after I was treated to a Kent BK2 Pure Grey Badger Brush and a Kent Luxury Shaving soap.

Last week for my 30th Bday I was given a Rasiermesser Wacker “Best Tradition” (or at least asked to choose a razor and I chose the aforementioned one). It is absolutely gorgeous but I realized straight away that it needs honing and stropping before I use it (just comparing the difference in blade sharpness between it and my favorite DE razor blades used in my shavette; the Israeli Made DE Razor Blades and Feather DE blades). This was confirmed by the many posts which seem to also suggest that new razors generally need to be honed and stropped before use.

From this forum I took on the recommendation and picked at random “Steve at The Invisible Edge” in the UK to carry out initial honing and stropping... or at least I will when I get a chance. I had to send old one back as the scales were not what were ordered but hopefully it will return to me by the end of this week. The blade looks gorgeous!

I also bought a loom strop which is un-pasted leather on one side and green pasted on one side (fine – which I can only imagine to mean the CrO compound and hopefully not the rough Dovo Green paste). Small but looking forward to giving it a go!

I apologize in advance for silly questions that may come up with regard to razor care.

Hope to post some pics when all arrives

Happy days,