Evening ppl Let me start out by stating I know jack about straights and I'm simply in the dark. There. So be gentle I should be getting my first shave ready vintage straight soon. What equipment do I need to keep it shave ready and good to go? Strop? Which? Hone? I suppose I can't use the old cracked one in the garage of unknown grit? Let alone my grinding wheel with grit 80? Paste? Anything else? Thanks alot!
Go to straightrazordesigns or thesuperiorshave for a strop. I prefer 3 inch wide strops. Get one with linen or cotton or webbing strop attached. Chromium oxide spray or paste on balsa will keep a razor touched up for a while. Barber's hone works also. Later down the line get 12 K hone synthetic or natural to finish or touch up.
Barber hones are getting tougher to find, but I like them and that's what I use. Like Lindy said go to SRD a finishing hone, along with a flattening stone. You should also pay a visit to Straight Razor Place and read their beginners wiki, lots of good information to help you in your beginning journey.
1. Time and Patience to learn the proper skills 2. A dual component hanging strop and the skill to use it... 3. Many newbs get a Bench Style strop first, this is easier to learn the flip on, and can be used as your Pasted strop when you graduate to a Hanging strop I always recommend at least 6 months learning to shave and strop before you even think about honing, most people don't listen to that recommendation, Also here is a good Hint Google "gssixgun" and the words Barber Hone, or Bench Strop, or Stropping or Honing and you will find multiple vids on all this on my Youtube channel... Enjoy
The vids are very helpful & informative. Glen does of very good job of explaining and demonstrating various aspect of razor care. Since I'm a relative newb, I've not done ANY honing—but my stropping technique using a 3" dual-comp. strop, has improved dramatically with daily practice.When I do get to honing, I've several inexpensive razors upon which to 'cut my honing teeth' on various stones.
+1 to what HolyRollah said and I would add it may be a good idea to start out on a cheap strop. You will probably nick it as I did mine (several times). I just ordered a second strop from Whipped Dog and hopefully my stropping has improved to the point I won't nick it up quite so badly.
eBay/Amazon UK is my sole source for equipment if I don't wanna pay premium in shipping and customs, but now I know what to look for. Those are some great links and advice. It's a whole new world to me. My biggest issue will be patience. No matter how much I know otherwise, if it doesn't work the first time I'm getting impatience.. Thanks, Guys!
It takes a long time and lots of attention to detail to shave well with a straight. Stick with it and you'll get that eye hand coordination and touch. You wouldn't expect to instantly be a great tennis player or soccer player first time out. If you don't think you have the patience, maybe you should stick to what you feel at ease with and not invest in the straight razor. There is lots of great information and videos on the shaving forums in the Wiki areas and from YouTube. Before I bought a straight, I watched many videos and read many threads, wiki posts over and over before I bought a straight and strop, etc.
Patience is a general problem for me, no matter the subject. Should I skip what I don't have patience for, I might as well go to bed 24/7 So no, this is a project I would like to try and master. I've mastered DE, despite I was impatience at first. So I think I'll master this as well, in time. With a lot of £€!!^* in the progress And - if I don't master it, I'm sure it'll look great on my vintage-shelf with other old timer stuff.
I would recommend you to check the poor man kit from whipped dog. It contains a straight razor, strop, a balsa wood strip with 2 paste. It's excellent for beginning and not a big investment. If you find out you don't want to go that route, you can return the razor to Larry and he will refund you. Check him out, great guy to do business with.
All US shops are out of the question, I'm afraid. Danish customs kills it entirely. Let alone the shipping to and from when talking commercial sales is a bummer :-( But getting the gear is no problem. The razor is already taken cared of, courtesy of a fine Gentleman from TSD and the rest I can easily locate on EU web shops and keep customs out of the question. There has been a lot !! of helpful postings here. Light has been shed and I have a ton of video and material I need to look through when the wife and kid are put to sleep (ehm... that sounded wrong!!)...
Scandanavian strop maker at http://www.scrupleworks.com/strops.html. I'm sure you can get a vintage Eskiltuna straight razor in your country.
That's not to say I'm not getting more! Thanks for link to the Norwegian shop. Unfortunately they're not within the EU, hence same rules regarding customs apply :-( I know, it's silly rules and it's a showstopper each day. I'll devote some time to search for a EU shop. I might be needing one to get it honed in the future if it's something I don't wanna do myself. I can easily find new straight, sadly mostly shavettes and the likes in Denmark, but I'm only interested in vintage ones and those are hard to come by here. The selection is much greater in the US. Actually I've found a few in Germany, but I can simply not tell if it's good or bad specimens, so I'm dependable on good fellas like you guys to steer me in the right direction. Williams Warrior have been so kind to offer me a trade on a fine vintage one. I'm really looking forward to that one. Then I can always search for more if RAD hits
Just look for clean edges with no chips or rust or cracks and good photos on ebay with scales without cracks. Then you have to get it honed if it hasn't been already by the seller
The visuals - got it! But what about value? I mean, I can easily find one at $100, but how can I tell if it's actually worth it and not some china knockoff that looks clean and "vintage"? Like finding a Weishi DE at $50 because it's in mint condition, no markings, special year of Gillette... That wont fool me, but the same could easily fool me within straights regime
Research the maker name shown on the tang. Go to straightrazorplace.com for razors to avoid section in the wiki section. You can find some great vintage ones for much less than a $100. If the opposite side of the tang says Solingen, Germany it should have the potential for a good to great razor. Any Japanese straight is going to be great. You could PM the links and I could give you my opinion. I have around 100 or so and have only gotten a few that were not worth saving. There is also bound to be someone in your area who has his grandfather's or fathers straight. Then there's antique or junk stores. theshavingroom.co.uk in England has buy sell and trade. PM Mikael on that website, he could tell where to find a good deal. There isn't such a thing as a knockoff of a vintage or new brand name razor. Too much trouble to produce something that would pass. Of course, you can get cheap Gold Dollars from China, but they will need shoulder grinding before honing and sometimes are warped.
My advice: 1-Go to Straight Razor Place. Register. Read the Wiki and start reading posts. 2-Listen to anything gssixgun has to say. 3-Follow the advice others have posted above me. Enjoy!
