Hi guys, I'm planning on getting my boyfriend a starter straight razor kit for xmas, on a budget. Being a girl, I have no idea what I should be looking for so I wanted to get some advice from your very comprehensive forum before I made my final purchases. Ideally I know a prepared kit would be best but they are far out of my price range. For a razor I'm planning on a Double Arrow from a seller on ebay, it's gotten good reviews on the net so I'm fairly confident in that choice. As for the rest... I'm thinking just a cheap ebay strop because I know it'll get knicked as he's learning. And a boar hair brush, I know I'll need to have a stand and bowl as well. Then there's the soap which I'm not sure about. Is a special shaving soap essential or can he just use stuff from the can or handmade soap? Also, I've seen some different kinds of paste and (diamond?) sprays for the strops- is this essential as well? Any advice you could provide, if I've missed something, or online resources/stores you could direct me to would be greatly appreciated.
Hi and welcome! You can get some soap samples and cream samples here. And even a strop. No need for a bowl or stand really. Plenty of people, including myself, don't use them. The Ebay straight, is it shave ready? What's the sellers name? Double Arrows are well thought of razors, but buying off Ebay can be difficult if you don't know what you're looking at or for. Others will be along with more advice. Maybe not tonight cause it is late, but they'll be along.
I have not used a DA but I hear it is pretty good. Make sure it is pre-sharpend (honed) before use and coming from a good seller (one who often sells straights). As for the strop, their is a nice starter strop sold in the shave den store and also a Illinois strop from classicshaving.com is cheap and a very good strop. As for pastes and stones you don't need to worry about that yet. Make sure he likes using it before getting in to the honing aspects. A straight and strop will be just fine. As for a brush, if you are going boar check out the Omega line, best boar hair I have ever used also I can not recommend the Crabtree and Evelyn Best Badger Brush enough, it is surly a steal at 35 dollars. You can just use a cereal bowl for the lathering, no need to buy anything fancy. The stuff in a can is crap (IMHO) if you are getting drugstore soap get Van Der Hagan and Williams Mug, not the best but good enough for the price. The Shave Den store sells wonderful soaps (not that I am trying to push them on you but well truth is truth). Best of luck and here is a thread that may help. http://www.theshaveden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6402
You might also want to consider getting him Lynn Abram's DVD "The World of Straight Razors". Its 3 hours of all the info one would want to see about straights. It really helps get you through the learning curve and minimizes frustration. You can buy it from straightrazordesigns.com. I think they have it on sale for $14.99 right now. Jordan
I would get him the strop from the store here at the site. Its better than a strop you'll find on ebay. I would also get him a badger brush, because IMHO, boars cheap and it sucks. He'll be frustrated by not being able to make lather before he even gets to shave. I would buy a prehoned razor from a member here. And I would purchase him a tripple milled soap from AOS. Or some samples from the store here. He may have an easier time lathering the tripple milled soaps though.
pre-honed or pre-sharpened... words like that are usually translated in the straight razor world as "shave ready". Shave ready is a term used to describe a razor that has been honed by someone who knows what they're doing, and then tested (shaved with) to make sure its really good to go. Some good straight razor brands are; Dovo, Boker, Dubl Duck, Wapenica (Wapi), Theirs Issard... I'm sure there are some that I'm forgetting, but all of those are generally good brands. For a good starter blade you can expect to pay about 50 bucks. Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM ZEEPK!!! Those are cheaply produced, low quality razors that will only frustrate the process for him. Also, if he's just starting out you might want to think about getting him a reasonably priced starter strop. These are commonly referred to as "starter strops" and can range in price as low as 8 bucks to somewhere around 30. Tony Miller sells a very nice starter strop here and is generally renowned for his quality strops. Sometimes even full sets of straight razor kits come up for sale here, and you could probably find a pretty decent razor there too if you wanted to throw a set together. Its one of the best sources I've found for shave ready, quality razors and stuff. Good luck! * Oh, by the way... brand new straight razors are almost never "shave ready" out of the box and would need to be professionally honed before they are shaved with. Don't ever have a razor honed at a knife shop, they will just screw up the bevel. My advice would be to cruise the forum here and find someone that you can send it to if you don't get a shave ready razor. Usually folks charge around 20 bucks for that service.
Open_Razor on eBay does not sell the Double Arrow razors expertly sharpened. You will have to send it out for sharpening unless you want to inflict pain on your boyfriend - just a fair warning to you!
Welcome Miss Meagan to The Shave Den! You've gotten some good advice above, if you need clarifications, please feel free to ask. We are hear to help!
Check this link. Ken offers complete shave ready straight razor sets at a very reasonable price. http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/vendors-corner/21694-fs-startup-razors-strops.html His website is: http://www.RupRazor.com
Looks like a solid set. RupRazor rescaled my Wapi in cherry and it looks pretty nice. He also honed it and I must say, I love this razor. Wapi is a great first razor and many veterans still keep one in their rotation. They are getting increasingly hard to find from what I hear, but if you can get your hands on one, they are a very solid start for straight shaving... and very inexpensive. I bought mine here in the BST already rescaled for 50 bucks. Rescaled is better than the original metal scales from what I hear, because the metal scales throw the razor off balance weight-wise. I've heard they can go for as low as 30 dollars. I feel really lucky to have mine.
The seller on ebay was Stamps22 and they actually directed me to Ken's store so hopefully I'll be purchasing a fully rescaled and prepared razor from him when he gets back to me. As for the soap and brush I'll probably get TSD soap off this site and I'm going to look for a brush at Sears but it'll have to be a boars hair one I just can't justify the price of badger one when he doesn't even know how to shave with this thing yet haha Also, I'm going to stick with a cheap ebay strop so he can cut it up as he learns how to sharpen. Thanks so much for your help guys!
