newbie question on cut throat razors and shaving

[ghost181]

hi to all in the forum. I am thinking of starting to shave with a streaight razor and have spent a lot of time trying to get infomation on the art of shaving and the best starter razor.

Although this forum is USA based I live in the UK so some of the places to buy equipment sugested on this site would be difficult for me.

any advice would be helpfull and possable sites to look at selling good equipment.

I have seen a new razor on ebay from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Sanguine-Razors (BRAND NEW- STRAIGHT CUT THROAT RAZOR SHAVING RAZORS C-2) could any one tell me if this is a good starter razor?

[heavydutysg135]

No, those are not good razors. Make sure to get something that is shave ready.

[Amyn]

Not good razors at all. Good name brands include Boker, Dubl Duck, ERN, Wade and Butcher to name a few.
This might help Newbie Help (http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6759)

[doctorsimon]

Welcome to B&B.

I'm not a straight razor user (that's what we call cut throat razors here) but what I've learned from the wise folk here is that you'll want to buy a straight with a lot of care. It'll need to be very well sharpened and you'll need to keep it so. This all takes a lot of skill in using stones and strops and strop pastes.

Possibly better to use a straight that uses disposable DE blades (those old blades that we used to use before the Gillette Contour) to start with. My barber uses one of these very effectively.

The gentleman's shop is based in the UK and sells both types of STR8. Easy to find on google.

Good luck,


Simon.

[Hawkeye5]

There are lots of quality vintage straight razors. You just need to be careful about the amount of honing and care the razor has been given. Almost any good quality razor will be made in England, Germany or Sweden. Contact Steve at the Invisible Edge. He is in the UK. Just do a Google search. He also sells on ebay.

[Suzuki]

If you post a WTB in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, I'm sure you'll find someone willing to sell you a nice refurbished, shave ready razor for a reasonable price.

Razors are small and light, so international shipping isn't an issue.

The best strops I've used are made by Tony Miller at the wellshavedgentleman.com. Yes, he's in the US, but he routinely ships to the UK and the quality of his products are worth going to the trouble to ship to the UK.

There are UK suppliers, but their prices are often higher than what you can get from US vendors, in particualr WRT to strops - not to mention the fact that the mass produced strops don't hold a candle to Tony's strops and are often just as, if not more expensive.

[Steelforge]

Hi, there are lots of UK based straight razor shavers both here and over at www.straightrazorplace.com. :thumbup:

You're actually better off buying from the USA for a lot of the bits and bobs you need for straight razor shaving. What with the decent exchange rate and all. Though there are some good suppliers in the UK too.

As mentioned above, you should probably look at Tony Millers website. His strops are the best around, and he also sells some great starter kits. Whatever razor you buy, it has to be honed properly by hand before you use it. Whatever vendors will tell you, mass produced razors are not usually sharp enough to shave with right out of the box. They usually need a bit of touching up by someone who knows what they're doing. All the razors sold by Tony are hand honed before sale.

If you're buying in the UK, http://www.theinvisibleedge.co.uk/ sells shave ready razors, as does http://www.shaveshop.co.uk/. http://www.gentlemans-shop.com/ is good too, but their razors are not hand honed.

My recommendation though would be to buy a strop (and possibly razor) from Tony Miller, and a razor from www.classicshaving.com where you can pay a little extra to get it honed by Lynn Abrams.

Furthermore, I'd also recommend buying Lynn's instructional DVD which is frankly superb. You can get it from Classicshaving or directly from Lynn here (http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7412).

[DEwey]

Hi, there are lots of UK based straight razor shavers both here and over at www.straightrazorplace.com. :thumbup:

You're actually better off buying from the USA for a lot of the bits and bobs you need for straight razor shaving. What with the decent exchange rate and all. Though there are some good suppliers in the UK too.

As mentioned above, you should probably look at Tony Millers website. His strops are the best around, and he also sells some great starter kits. Whatever razor you buy, it has to be honed properly by hand before you use it. Whatever vendors will tell you, mass produced razors are not usually sharp enough to shave with right out of the box. They usually need a bit of touching up by someone who knows what they're doing. All the razors sold by Tony are hand honed before sale.

If you're buying in the UK, http://www.theinvisibleedge.co.uk/ sells shave ready razors, as does http://www.shaveshop.co.uk/. http://www.gentlemans-shop.com/ is good too, but their razors are not hand honed.

My recommendation though would be to buy a strop (and possibly razor) from Tony Miller, and a razor from www.classicshaving.com where you can pay a little extra to get it honed by Lynn Abrams.

Furthermore, I'd also recommend buying Lynn's instructional DVD which is frankly superb. You can get it from Classicshaving or directly from Lynn here (http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7412).

+1 to everything Steel said above and I'll also mention that as a new guy on a budget (or just not sure you'll love the straights (though I think you will)) you can go to ebay or Lynn Abrams or straightrazorplace.com in their selling section and look for a Wapienica or Wapi for short. These are usually NOS from - of all places - Poland and they are absolutely fantastic shavers available for as little as $14 or so (up to $50 if they have been nicely rescaled). Have fun! Just be sure to start on the right foot and buy a decent shaving razor (not necessarily expensive) that has been honed to a keen edge before you give it a go.