Thread: Good Affordable Strops on the Continent

Good day all and sundry. My fiancée just bought me a beautiful Dovo straight razor as a gift which I'll be sending to a honemeister soon assuming I can locate one, and I'm in the market for a decent strop. I spend half my time in Paris and Heidelberg. Can anyone recommend a good maker? I've been by Planète Rasoir, but they're all pretty expensive. I didn't see anything currently available in the classifieds forum. Also, if anyone is aware of a good honemeister nearby, the information would be greatly appreciated. I have heard that Coutellerie Chastel will hone a blade for 10 euros. Thank-you in advance.

Congrats on the new razor. The link shows a shavette which uses disposable blades, so no need for a strop or to get it honed.

Hi, and Welcome to SRP. Neil Miller is in the UK and is a strop maker and also offers razor honing and other services. The link at the end is his web site, but you can also find him here on the forum much of the time. A very friendly, knowledgable, and skilled individual. I have one of his strops and it is as good as it gets. If you don't see what you're looking for on his site, contact him. There are probably others in Europe, but Neil is the only one I can think of at the moment. That's a very nice gift from your fiancé, you're a lucky man. There are lots of very helpful members here at SRP, and also many good sources of info, such as our wiki Straight Razor Place Wiki - Straight Razor Place Wiki Glad to have you here and once again, Welcome!!

http://www.strop-shop.co.uk/

Best Regards,
Howard

@jodypress
I didn't post a link, so I think you're confused. I do know what a straight razor is as opposed to a safety razor. For clarity's sake, I'll specify that my razor is the Dovo Silver Steel Ebenholz.

Originally Posted by StDrogo

@jodypress
I didn't post a link, so I think you're confused. I do know what a straight razor is as opposed to a safety razor. For clarity's sake, I'll specify that my razor is the Dovo Silver Steel Ebenholz.

Very bizarre, when I saw your post, there was a link on the word Dovo which took me to here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007PCM87O/ I know because I've checked my history. Why would I post otherwise???

Anyway to add to the above, you can also purchase strops from The Invisible Edge and Steve does honing too.

For continentel Europe: Riemen

Re: the shavette. It does sound like a good why to start until you get your kit squared away. You can leave the 'good' straight edge at your girl friends location and travel with the shavette. That way you can start right away and also not worry about loading a valuable razor in transit.

Originally Posted by jodypress

Very bizarre, when I saw your post, there was a link on the word Dovo which took me to here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007PCM87O/ I know because I've checked my history. Why would I post otherwise???

I have noticed this too - even on some posts I have made. I think it is some kind of key-word linking, used by third parties to advertise their goods. It's a bit annoying, to say the least! It can also be very misleading if you don't know what is going on - there should be some sort of warning.

Regards,
Neil

Hey all and thanks for the responses. I might just wait until I'm in the States in November or pay for shipping a more inexpensive strop over. Is the general consensus that Illinois Strops are good? I apologize for my imprecision when referring to Coutellerie Chastel honing blades; they are an actual razor/razor service shop that was recommended over on coupechouclub.com. According to that site, alternatively there is a good French honemeister who will hone razors for 5 euros plus shipping. On a more distressing note, I just removed the plastic label on my razor and discovered what appear to be faint black striations where the label used to be. I'm not quite sure what I should do...perhaps I can exchange the razor for another one if I take it to the vendor or maybe they'll come out with some polish.

Good news regarding the black tarnish marks under the label. The vendor simply exchanged it for a pristine model after trying to remove them with some polish.