Thread: Beginners advice needed

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Learn the basics with a razor, a hanging strop and a norton 4k/8k and then you can worry about strop pastes if you want to get exotic. You don't buy a car stereo (nice to have but not necessary) before you learn how to drive.

Not true. It's better to listen to the tunes then drive...
Actually I have both a hone and a Tony Miller pasted paddle strop. The paddle strop is great for touchups. Don't have to pull out the old hone when a few passes on the old paddle will do the trick.

I didn't say a car stereo wasn't nice to have, however your car will get you from A to B even if it doesn't have a stereo system. And the sound of a well-tuned Hemi or a VW TDI bi-turbo setup is sweeter than any tune I've ever heard Pasted strops will make your life a bit easier, but I'd rather have a good hone.

Originally Posted by gfoster

Ok, potentially really dumb question... but where do you buy styptic pencils? I looked at the local longs drugstore and couldn't find one. When I asked the sales drone he was like "uh... maybe the office supplies?"

I'd prefer to pick one up at the store vice buying them over the internet.

-- Gary F.

Gary,
I have found them at Walgreens and Other local drug stores. About $2.00

Jim

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

I didn't say a car stereo wasn't nice to have, however your car will get you from A to B even if it doesn't have a stereo system. And the sound of a well-tuned Hemi or a VW TDI bi-turbo setup is sweeter than any tune I've ever heard Pasted strops will make your life a bit easier, but I'd rather have a good hone.

Sorry to disagree but if the car doesn't have tunes leave me home. I have both and each has its place. I suppose you could sharpen a butter knife on a pasted strop but I wouldn't want to. However for a light touch up non better.

You can get a styptic pencil from Classicshaving.com too.

Originally Posted by RichZ

Sorry to disagree but if the car doesn't have tunes leave me home. I have both and each has its place. I suppose you could sharpen a butter knife on a pasted strop but I wouldn't want to. However for a light touch up non better.

Which just goes to prove "To each his own". I may eventually get the 4-sided strop from Tony, but for now, I want to make sure I have the basics covered and a bit of extra cash to throw around. In any case I'd like to hear Lynn's take on this

If you're not going to restore Ebay razors, the minimum you need is a fine hone, like a Swaty barber hone for refreshing the edge (or a pasted strop). If you refresh the edge whenever it starts pulling a little, you can go indefinitely without serious honing. So, it would be possible for you to simply maintain the razor and send it out to be sharpened when serious honing is needed. Many men used to do that in the days before safety razors.

If you plan to restore razors you will probably want to get a Norton 4/8K at some point. You may need something coarser, like a 1K if you start runing into some really dull or damaged razors.

Originally Posted by gfoster

Ok, potentially really dumb question... but where do you buy styptic pencils? I looked at the local longs drugstore and couldn't find one. When I asked the sales drone he was like "uh... maybe the office supplies?"

I'd prefer to pick one up at the store vice buying them over the internet.

-- Gary F.

the large chain drugstores, like CVS seem to have them.

Originally Posted by gnomore

I guess the thing that worried me the most, is my leather strop has no paste... do i need to buy paste? Or can I strop without paste. This is the strop....

http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196036.htm

And for a hone, should I get the norton waterstone 3 inch 4000/8000?

You don't need paste for a plain strop. You might want to add some conditioning paste occasionally to keep it supple.

Don't run out and get the Noton or any other expensive hone just to maintain your razor. You realy only need it if you intend to restore razors. Oh, one thing that might be useful is a good shaving mirror that will let you get real close.

Joe,
I agree with you on this. If you are working with new razors, already honed a decent barber hone or multiple pasted strop is certainly a viable choice.

Because of limited time and their ease of use I manintain all of my razors with mainly two pasted strops. I send a few out to Lynn once a year if they are not up to snuff when I buy them new or don't have time to work on them and keep them going on pastes.
I use a 4 side with 9.0, 3.0, 1.0 and 0.5 Amplex and a 2 side, leather and balsa with 0.25 on each surface. With this setup I can take most (not all) new, out of the box razors and get them sharp enough to shave. When I have time I sit down with a Belgian, an Escher or a barber hone and hone but mostly it's pastes.

Ray got me started on this path because he said it was easy to learn. It was and I got my first new razor ready on a TI 2 side with 0.5 and TI white paste.
After that I wanted a longer, wider, more versatile strop and well, the rest is history <g> Yes, this is a biased answer but I make paddles because I believe in them.

I do own and occasionally use a Norton if I get nicks or a less than expected eBay NOS find.