My newbie story... FWIW
I got interested in str8 razor shaving a year or so ago and started out intending to spend a minimimal amount of money (<$75). It was pretty obvious that I needed shaving soap, a mug, a brush, a strop, and of course, a razor. That's what I grew up seeing in the barber shops and movies, so I was confident I KNEW what I needed. :fim:
Some of my choices were successful, some failures...
- Soap and brush -- Success -- I found an inexpensive Surrey brush and soap at Walgreens for about $8.00. Since then I've found similar items at various discount stores for slightly less. The soap is reasonably good and the boar's hair brush works just fine. If I had really been on the cheap I could have just bought the tube of brushless shaving cream for under $3.00, but I decided to splurge :p
- Mug -- Success -- I already had a variety of ones to choose from... heavy ceramic coffee mugs, the ones people had given me with cleaver sayings on the side (that I felt compelled to keep for some reason but had no real use for). I picked one shorter than the length of my brush, dropped the cake of soap in and was ready to go.
But I still needed a razor and a strop. I jumped on the internet and quickly found a number of sites selling new razors, all at prices which seemed to be something close to the National Debt compared to my budget. So, I went to Ebay looking for a "deal". :nono:
I spent some number of days of looking at the 400+ hits I got on ebay for "straight razor". (I didn't stop to think how other cultures and languages would refer to them... "cut throat razors" in the UK, "rasiermesser" in Germany, "rasoir coupe" in France, etc.).
- Razor -- Failure, mostly -- I bought a kit on Ebay that included a razor, strop, and paste... for $30.00.
- Yes, it turned out to be a Pakistan razor (although I didn't know that then).
- Yes, the short little strop worked ok. It is pasted on one side, smooth on the other, and still hangs on the hook in my bathroom (I still use it occasionally, in fact)
- Yes, I could shave with the razor... but never comfortably, and not without stropping often mid-shave.
I blamed my stropping technique and went looking for some helpful info on the internet. That's when I discovered the SRP Yahoo site... and things got better!!! I learned that the Pakistan razor would never shave right, but it was good to practice honing on. I was offered, and bought, a shave-ready razor from one of the honmeisters here on the site... I still use it in my rotation and consider it to be one of my better razors.
Since then, of course, I've relaxed the budget enough to buy all sorts of "necessities", including waterstones, barber hones, various leather hones/strops, and of course, numerous ebay razors, both good ones and "fixer-uppers".
So, if I had it to do all over again on a limited budget (and all I wanted was to be able to shave comfortably with a str8 -- ie, not restore ebay specials, etc) here's what I would choose to get...
- a boars brush and a cake of shaving soap at Walgreens ($8)
- a good heavy ceramic coffee mug (free?)
- a shave-ready starter razor from one of our honemeisters ($35-$65)
- a decent strop... hanging, paddle, or flatbed all work well and any one will get the job done (<$50)
- buy a Norton 4/8K waterstone ($75)
- buy a cheap ebay razor to practice honing on ($15)
Revised budget estimate... approx $200. JMHO :)