Beginning enthusiast seeking advice on choosing straight razor, strop and hone.

After some extensive research on the subject on this forum as well as on straightrazorplace and B&B I feel like I am finally ready to dive into the world of straight razor shaving. Before I do take the plunge and get all geared up I would like some feedback and suggestions from the knowledgeable members of this forum. Readers uninterested in my general ramblings on the subject are welcome to skip the next four paragraphs for the actual questions.

As a brief background story of my shaving routine thus far can be said that I moved from electric to cartridge razors a few years back and have now finally taken the step and ordered my first proper DE from a member of this forum. I also received my first badger brush and real shaving soap today and can’t wait to replace the canned goo I have been stuck with so far. Now I am not looking to speed up my shaving routine nor merely improve the quality of the shave, but instead my main desire is to replace a daily chore with something to truly enjoy and look forward to.

Straight shaving is therefore where I feel my heart is and after lurking on the forum for countless hours I have come to the conclusion that there is no real benefit of mastering a DE first so I might as well take on the challenge of a straight at once. My first thought was to get a Dovo Shavette, to avoid the added hassle of keeping the razor sharp while working on my technique, but as many members seem to suggest that it really behaves and feels quite unlike a real straight I thought I might as well just get the real deal at once.

Now I am as much of a sucker for eye candy as the next guy and could easily see myself dropping way too much on a beautiful vintage straight only to end up ruining the blade for good during my first honing, throwing my money down the drain and ruining a great piece of art at the same time. Being a student with limited income I thought I just this once would try restraining myself and instead going for a reasonably priced good quality razor suitable for a beginner instead of a great looking one.

After this wordy intro I will as promised try to get my actual questions across in a clear and concise form. For your information I live in northern Scandinavia, Finland to be precise, and would therefore like to order from within the EU to avoid additional costs. As far as my facial hair goes I sport a, although not too thick, quite coarse and fast growing beard.

Straight razor: I am currently leaning towards getting a shave ready new straight to avoid the dilemma of hunting for a good quality used one with my very limited knowledge. At the moment I am thinking of getting a pre-honed Dovo ‘Best Quality’ Razor, which is the cheapest model of the range, from theinvisibleedge. Is this a good straight for a beginner or would I benefit from climbing a bit higher on the pricelist or alternatively going in a completely different direction?

Strop: I know that many of you hold Tony Miller’s strops in the highest regard and my first thought was to get his Heirloom "Starter" Artisan model. However, If I do order a Dovo from the aforementioned source I could get away with lower shipping costs by getting a Dovo strop from the same source. I was thinking about going for the cheapest model described as: Hanging strop, cowhide with top swivel and grab bar. My question is, although hardly of the same quality as Tony’s, is this a good strop for a beginner or should I reconsider?

Hone: This is an area that I am completely clueless about at the moment as the information available on different stones and pastes is quite overwhelming. I agree that having your straight professionally sharpened is the best favour you can do yourself as a novice. But as the blade will need some touching up every few weeks and I really believe that honing my own straight is something I would sincerely enjoy, I guess I may as well start practising at once. Needless to say any suggestions at all on what to get to be able to maintain a sharp edge on my straight is warmly welcomed.

As already mentioned any suggestions/ideas/opinions or straight up critique is greatly appreciated and even if you only eyed through this lengthy post I thank you for your time.

 

My first and still the best are as follows:

Dovo Best - Holds a good edge shaves well
(2) Illinois Strops or similiar. Don't make the mistake of getting a narrow strop.
Norton 4000/8000 combo stone
Crom OX (green stuff) paste for the other strop or make a paddle strop out of paint sticks and athletic tape.

YMMV and on this topic it will.

If you have the coin a Shapton 16k glass stone.

 

My personal opinion is that you skip the hone and focus on shaving and stropping, unless you are going to get more than one razor and leave one razor's sharpness to the experts while you hone your sharpening abilities (or sharpen your honing abilities.) It is difficult to learn to both sharpen a straight and learn to shave with that straight at the same time. So many variables to troubleshoot!

The bit about having to refresh every few weeks I am not so sure about. Different blades, different beards, different shaving & stropping skills, and how often you shave will all play a role in how often your razor will need to see a hone. And yes pasting one side of the strop with a fine abrasive is an easy way to keep the blade sharper longer before it has to be honed on a stone. A cheap quality finishing hone is a Chinese 12,000 grit, had for $20 - $30 new. A high quality finishing hone is a vintage Japanese Karasu hone mined at Nakayama, had for $500 - $1000. There are many great hones in between, the Shaptons being good bang for the buck. Any hone you get will likely need to be flattened in order to be used the way everyone seems to be teaching honing. Honing is a whole different animal requiring different tools and a different skill set.

 

First of all thank you both for your inputs they gave me a bit more perspective. I believe you are right about it being more than enough of a challenge to learn to strop and actually shave with the straight and think I will leave the honing to the experts for now.

From what you are saying it seems like the Dovo is a solid straight and being a 5/8 half-hollow I understand that it should be pretty beginner friendly. Unless people start pitching in advising against it I think this is the one I will get. The Dovo strop I was looking at on the other hand does seem quite narrow now that you mention it and I might be better of with the wider Artisan from Tony after all.

 

I think the ones that TSD sells are fairly wide.

I believe also the TSD ones are two sided so you can green paste one side and leave the other.

 

Forsooth:

Proforma Strops

Damon gets good reviews; it appears to be a nice well made low cost strop

Thanks for carrying this one, TSD store

 

Thank you for the suggestion I had completely neglected the TSD store and the Proforma Strop looks like just what I need and sure is affordable. Too bad it's sold out at the moment but I guess they will be getting more soon.

 

A cheaper beginner razor from the same source would be a Wapienca. Keep your eye out for vintage razors too. As regards hanging strops, I only have one of Tony's and it's great (also some TI paddle stuff which work but I'm not such a fan of paddles, though they do work so…). If I were starting again, the line I would take would be vintage for the razor.

 

+1 on the Wapi, great shaver

Issy

 

It think I might just have to reconsider my initial choice after all. The Wapi sure looks nice and from what I have read it is an excellent shaver for the price. Being made out of Swedish steel is most certainly not a drawback either and I understand that it keeps a good edge.

I guess my only concern at the moment is that is a near-wedge, somehow I have throughout my whole research seen myself as more of a hollow man, but without any experience of straights I really have no clue where I got that feeling from.

Once again thank you all for the great suggestions they really have helped me out.

 

I thought a final post to close off the thread and report back on what my final choice was might be appropriate after all the help I got.

I opted for a shave ready Wapienica and a 2,25'' cowhide strop both from www.theinvisibleedge.co.uk. The total price including shipping was 65 EUR which is much lower than I ever dared to dream of, especially considering that I got a quality straight. Feeling really happy with my purchase and can't wait to get my first cut.

 

Tron,
I went this route myself and I'm still waiting on the Wapi from Steven, it's on its way across the pond. I bought an American made strop from Classic Shaving its 3 wide so no X pattern for me.

I'm staying away from the Canvas and the Chromium Oxide paste until absolutely necessary, maybe I'm being naive, but from what I've read, using the paste and stones is only after a long time of shaving and stropping or if you roll your edge.

I want to eventually get into the honing aspect, but for now, I'm happy using the KISS method until absolutely necessary.

Cheers
D

 

Thanks, guys for the great info and steering our newbies in the right direction! Tron, sounds like you made some good choices. Don't forget to check out Dr. Moss's guide (stickied herein) and let us know how it goes!

 

My Wapi seems to be on its merry way over the pond to me as well. Remarkably fast dispatch service which simply cannot go unmentioned, placed my order at roughly 1:00 am (GMT) and received a tracking number at 16:00 pm the very next day.

Sirshavesalot, I decided to take exactly the same route as you. I thought I probably will have my hands full for some time with simply shaving and stropping and will be better off leaving the pastes and hones to the professionals until I get a hang of the technique myself. The strop I bought is roughly half an inch narrower than the edge of the Wapi so I am planning to go with the x-pattern.

PalmettoB, thank you for the encouraging words and I will make sure to take a look at the guide you mentioned. Although I feel pretty certain that I have already come across it along with all the other great tutorial I have found mentioned on this forum as well as BB and SRP.

 

try kenrup at www.ruprazor.com. he sells good starter kits that include a razor and strop. you will spend far less on these together than the dovo would cost you. he is a standup guy and will make sure you are satified with what you get.

good luck.

vgod

 

Thanks hoglahoo for the plug. I just sent a bunch to JoAnna and they should be arriving soon or in stock. Sent some with leather thong and a couple with hardware.

Thanks

 

Strop , dont hone!!!!!!!!!!

One of the posts said concentrate on shaving and stroping,
that is great advice, get yourself a "Shave ready Straight" and a Strop, buy the way you will, mess up your strop, so for your "first' strop the beginer is the way to go,
you could buy or make yourself a Paddle strop to put Diamond paste 1.0mic/.05 mic, apply 1.0 to one side and .05 to the other ,
when you get the razor if its shave ready, do not and i mean do not!! strop the razor, just shave with it so you dont ruin the edge before your first shave,
then strop the razor with very little pressure about 40 laps, before your next shave,
you wont need to touch up the edge on the pasted paddle for a few weeks, depending on your beard,
do not buy a Stone Hone, your not rready and will be tempted to use it an probably just ruin the edge on your shave ready blade

the idea is to "keep your Blade OFF the hone for as long as possible, that is what the pasted paddle strops are for, they will touch up your edge when you notice that stropping alone is not putting the edge back on your Straight,
Go to Straight razor place site and there is knowledge beyond belief, just read

and do not hone your blade on a stone till you cant get it right on the paddles,
honeing will take time to get the feel for,

Shave ready Straight
Begginer Strop
paddle strop with Diamond paste
Shave cream out of a tube or soap disk
Lather Brush and mug,
NO HONE ,, not yet.

youlll be set to go, and Shaving will never be the same to you again, youll never got back to a Bic again,
Good luck,
By the Way i have shave ready Straights i would be willing to set you up with
Razor,Brush,soap disc, paddle strop,,,,,,with the leather strop youd be on your own
send me a Pm if youd like
Grottolord

 

Okay, here are two ways to do it;

1) The Stuggi Way (the way I did it)

- Dovo Carbon Steel Razor, model doesn't matter as long as it's carbon, no need for shave ready, just buy it new from an online dealer.
- Cheap strop, get a small Dovo or something, you're gonna nick it so you don't want anything nice, just one that works. You can buy a better one and paste this one with CrOx later.
- Small Yellow Coticule for sharpening, get them from ArdennesCoticule

Give the Dovo a few hundered laps on the coticule with water, then strop it and shave. My razor is super smooth wth no tugging, where a Shumate 30k sharpened by Gugi tugs like crazy on the ATG. I need to give the shumate a couple laps on the coticule. Do note that my super-smooth razor might be dude to the special silver steel that's only used in some Dovo's, I don't know.

On the TPT, get a sharp DE blade and compare the edge on it and the Dovo when your done, should feel stickier than a russian Gillette DE blade.

2) The easy method.

- Any nice Dovo that's presharpened, get it from Straightrazordesigns.com or classicshaving.com.
- A Tony Miller tri-strop and a trainer/starter strop buy him for practice, which you then later can paste with CrOx.

Just shave and strop baby!

EDIT: Do note that I didn't have any straight razor experience before doing method one, and no fine edge sharpening experience either, just mechanical skills and knowlage of practical axe-sharpening.

 

To grottolord.
Thank you for the reply and the offer to set me up with a nice starter kit. I have however been shaving with a DE for a while so didn't need to get a brush and soap this time around.

Even though I received my strop and shave ready Wapi prior to reading your response I am glad I followed the route you suggest and left the hone for later. I have gotten a few nice shaves out of the straight already, although I am still struggling with the right angle and having some problems with my neck area. I have a long road to walk before I start getting consistent great shaves out of a straight, but I plan to enjoy the journey to the fullest.

To Stuggi.
First of all, congratulations for winning the newbie give-away. It was nice to see that the price went to a fellow countryman although it got the wrong address .

As you can see by my response to grottolord I didn't feel quite adventurous enough to go for the Stuggi way and am glad I didn't as I now have a reference point for how a sharp straight should feel and shave. In the future I do nevertheless plan to get a hone of my own and start getting the art of sharpening a straight down properly. However, for the time being I have my hands full with learning how to actually guide it over my face.

 

ugh

Ok from another first timer here is my results

I purchased a shave ready Wapi from Invisible Edge, btw a great razor. I also bought a nice 80 dollar 3' wide American Made Latigo and cowhide lather strop from Classic Shaving.

I stropped properly, but yes I did nick my strop and still do occasionally, my technique needs a lot of work. I find that I don't lift the blade or roll it without catching the edge on about 1 out of 20 strokes maybe less. I have had to sand my strop luckily, I have some very fine sandpaper ( up to 12000, I used to sand my acrylic aquarium) So I am able to restore the strop, although I didn't want to have to do this on such a nice strop.

I am now purchasing .25 diamond paste to help resharpen the edge, because I have a very heavy beard, and the blade is already snagging a bit here and there.

I'm holding the strop very taught and applying light preassure, but enough to hold it to the surface, it is a very weird thing though, sometimes when I drag the blade, I dont hear any sound, sometimes I hear a "whish Whish" sound, and it sounds like the edge is actually being stropped. I'm not sure what the correct sound is, but I assume the wish wish sound is the ideal one to hear.

I also know having a wedge shaped razor is a bit different from a hollow ground, I'm not sure if this effect how your suppose to strop the razor.

Personally, I would buy a prehoned shave ready razor, and also buy another razor to hone, even a cheap one, to get the feel of the blade and sharpness you need to shave with.

My razor can split hairs, but honestly its still not sharp enough on my face.

Also, and I'm sorry that I'm rambling but blade angle is super important, I find a 20 degree angle is great, I see videos all the time I guys shaving with a much vertical angle like 35+ and whisking hairs off their face, their razors must be light sabers or they have super fine beards, cause that just doesnt fly on my face. I should mention I'm coming from using a Futur with Feathers.

I don't know if this info helps, but its been what I've experienced in the past week of shaving with a straight.

I want to shave I have gotten a nearly bbs shave each time now, so I am improving, but the coarse hairs on my chin stache and around my mouth cause the blade to snag often.

cheers
D

:ashamed001