Noob looking for strop advice

Hi everyone,

I'm new to straight razor shaving and i'm still in the process of aquiring all the goods that i need to get started. A few months ago i bought a new DOVO inox on ebay that came "shave ready" but after trying it out a few times with painful results i realised that this clearly wasn't the case. After looking at the weath of information on this forum I figure that it's definately in need of a good stropping and most likely a honing also. I live in Australia and the only strop that i've came across in the shops was a Black Beauty that was selling for $150. Being a poor student i'm looking for something a little more economical. I've noticed a number of cheap stops going on ebay and i'm looking for advice on whether these are any good and worth buying. Any suggestions? Advice from anyone else in Aus about any local suppliers would also be great.

Cheers!!

If you need a good strop. Tony Miller has the apprentice strop for 30 bucks on his site The Well Shaved Gentleman, Heirloom Razor Strop Company, Straight Razor Shaving Supplier He's a great guy to deal with.

A strop is one of those things that if taken care of will last the rest of your life. I would definitely get one from Tony. Yes you can get a quality strop on Eboy for a song however you have to be really careful and make sure you have really good fotos so you can judge. You don't want the strop to come in the mail with you guessing as if it was a xmas present from a distant uncle.

Hi again,
Thanks heaps for the info, I looked up Tony Millers strops that you suggested. They look great, the only problem is that shipping is $27 to Australia, which is nearly the same price as the strop itself. I saw the start up kits of kenrups in the vendors corner which came with both a shave ready razor and a strop. Are these strops still pretty decent? Combining the shipping could save me a bunde.

Cheers,
Michael

Sorry about the high shipping costs but blame the post office! Actual Priority Mail Shipping for a 1 pound, 8 ounce strop is $27.00. I used to ship via First Class but had too many packages go astray which costs me a fortune and shipping was still $14-18. First Class can take 3 or 4 weeks, Priority 2 week on average. after each batch of orders leave I start getting e-mails 4 or 5 days later as to "where is my stuff". I can fully understand why many sellers simply refuse to do international sales.

Tony

Michael,

The Black Beauty strops are fairly expensive, that is true. The Junior should be a bit cheaper than the Finish. I have both, and they are great strops (unfortunately one is out on loan to another member, otherwise I would offer you a loan).

There is also the Razor Shop in the Myer Center in the Queen Street Mall. I have seen them stock the small Dovo strops, as well as a hand made "Carbroundum" strop (which I also bought). But I would not recommend using the carborundum side. That strop goes for $90 or so, so it is still expensive. Don't know what the small Dovo costs.

There is another Brisbane member here, Ashley, who I am pretty sure made his own strop. Perhaps you could seek him out (don't think he posts much) and ask him what he did and where he got his materials.

Hope that helps a bit.

James.

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Originally Posted by lucky777

Hi again,
Thanks heaps for the info, I looked up Tony Millers strops that you suggested. They look great, the only problem is that shipping is $27 to Australia, which is nearly the same price as the strop itself. I saw the start up kits of kenrups in the vendors corner which came with both a shave ready razor and a strop. Are these strops still pretty decent? Combining the shipping could save me a bunde.

Cheers,
Michael

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That's the kit I started with and I love it. It was exactly what I needed to get going.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your input, it's amazing how much help and information is available from this place :bow. James has offered to help me out with honing my razor so all i need now is the strop :). I've done some more research and called the local shave shops. A lot of green horns like myself seem to be saying that they get quite a few nicks in their strops when they first start out, so i think i might do what Ashley did and make a strop to learn on before i get a new one (I PM'd him about how he made one earlier, just awaiting a reply to get started).

As far as getting a new one once i've learned how to strop goes, i've contacted both the razor shop and the shaver shop. The razor shop is only selling the carbroundum strop and it's going for $109. The guy said "If your getting a strop it has to be carbroundum, the leather just won't work". After reading some other threads here i think i'll pass on that one. The shaver shop only has the junior black beauty and that's going for $99.95. Even with the high postal fees to Aus Tony millers strops are pretty competitive with these(assuming the Aus dollar stops plummeting). So my only other question really is how do the black beauties and the tony miller strops (artisan and apprentice) match up? Tonys strops definitely have a good rep and I would be inclined to buy from someone who supports this forum.

Thanks again for all the help,
Michael.