I just bought my first straight razor

[HamburgConcave]

Yesterday I bought my first razor from bobsrazors.com; I think he's a razor restorer. I am still waiting on it to arrive. I did some research, and I think I made a good first buy. It's stamped with "Hamburg Concave," supposedly from Germany, carbon steel 5/8" blade, rounded, doesn't appear to have much damage or rust. It is shave ready, and I think I trust Bob to hone a razor.

*** Has anyone heard of this razor and know anything about it?

*** Should I clean or disinfect it before I use it?

*** I am going to use an old leather belt for a strop, like put a hook in the wall and put the buckle over it and pull the other end tight. Any suggestions or advice here?

- Keith

[paco664]

Goto Starshaving.com and they have a excellent strop for $15 or so... I have one of those and one of their big Daddy 3"strops... You will love em....

The razor sounds fine... German steel its good steel...

Buy a quality shave soap or cream..

Just pour rubbing alcohol over the blade and you'll be fine....

[shakin_jake]

^ +1


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

[kiwichris]

Enjoy that first shave when the straight arrives ... just take your time and if your lather dries out, re-lather. Nothing worse than trying to straight shave with dry lather (believe me, I've done it!)

[jay67212]

I'm not a straight razor guy, but whippeddog.com I've heard is a pretty good resource for straight equipment.

[Sledgehammer39]

Congrats, and Welcome Aboard!

[Prof. Moriarty]

Larry at Whippeddog.com sells strops for 11dollars (or $8 if you don't mind that it doesn't look as nice).
Generally you don't need to disinfect if it comes from a reputable seller. If you are nervous just use some alcohol as has been said.
Enjoy your shave, and make sure you have some good lather.

[Pgg365247]

+1 for whippeddog.com

Larry is a pleasure to deal with and you won't find better deals on user grade straight equipment.

[NickCutlip]

Welcome to B&B !!

[HamburgConcave]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My razor came in and I tried for the first time last night before a date with a new girl. Probably not the best idea, but I just did my sideburns (had to go on both sides). It went well, although I knicked my ear a bit. I finished with my DE razor ok.

I felt the razor tugging on the hairs a little bit, but that might have been a less-than-confident hand. I ordered a strop online today and I am considering using an old leather belt in the mean time. Any thoughts?

[shakin_jake]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My razor came in and I tried for the first time last night before a date with a new girl. Probably not the best idea, but I just did my sideburns (had to go on both sides). It went well, although I knicked my ear a bit. I finished with my DE razor ok.

I felt the razor tugging on the hairs a little bit, but that might have been a less-than-confident hand. I ordered a strop online today and I am considering using an old leather belt in the mean time. Any thoughts?


~~~the problem with using an old leather belt, what if the leather has something embedded in it?...that could damage your razor's edge. I think a safer temporary measure would be to strop using newspaper. There's some videos around the internet showing what some did but basically you take a single sheet of newspaper and fold it till you get about3" in width, wrap it around a towel bar and hold both ends with your free hand and strop your razor on it. Lead with the spine, always keep the spine on the strop when you turn the razor over to come back the other way...use no pressure. the idea is to straighten the edge, not apply any pressure to it. Using pressure tends to roll the edge. big n00b mistake i and others made so I'm mentioning it to you so you don't get in a habit of doing it


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.