Hadrada79,
The steel on the C135 Thiers-Issard (TI) razors is very hard (IIRC ca. 62 - 65 Rockwell C). They take a little while to get dialled in, but once there are excellent shavers.
There are a number of reports that recent TI razors have been a little spotty on the Quality Control side, and arrive with mismatched and un-even bevels. I was lucky, and got mine soon after the C135 razors made an appearance, and the two razors I have were spot on.
A razor, such as the Dovo Best, is an excellent razor to start with, and is easier to maintain initially than the C135 TIs would be. You can get the Dovo's from Mr. Steve Dempster (who also owns the TI UK site), and he will hone them shave-ready for you.
For strops, Mr. Neil Miller (
Vintage Straight Razor Sales & Restorations, Hand Made Strops, UK Razor Honing and Vintage Hone Stones) makes world-class strops. Mr. Dempsters custom strops are also very nice.
However, the first strop will always take a beating, and will end up with nicks etc. - just a fact of life :) It is therefore prudent not to start out with a really spiffing strop if you are worried about nicking it.
Again, at the beginning, the stropping skills will not be there, and the time between honings will be much shorter than later on when you have stropping down pat :) Initially, my razor's edges were lucky to last a couple of weeks before touch up, but within a couple of months, I could extend this considerably.
Have fun :)
Best regards
Russ