First quality straight on its way; question about strops etc.

I finally purchased a quality straight razor, a W&B, from someone in shave-ready condition (the razor I mean). I already have soaps, brushes etc., but I'm wondering about what else I should get, now and/or eventually.

I actually have an Illinois strop from an ill-fated attempt to get a straight razor in the 1990s:


It's an Illinois 835, but it looks a bit different from the 835s I see for sale online.

I also have a piece of wood with leather fixed to to both sides (the leather's about 3" wide) that I have for sharpening knives:


Will either or both of these serve for stropping and/or other straight razor duties?

And any recommendations on the eventual purchase of stones/hones?

Those strops will do just fine. As for stones, I have no experience there.

If your budget is tight like mine, you may want to try lapping film instead of stones. There is lots of love here for the film and it is the least costly way to get into honing.

Here is an exhaustive thread on the film: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/283576-Lapping-film-try-it

See post #29 for a great condensed guide to film honing.

BSAGuy said:

Those strops will do just fine. As for stones, I have no experience there.

If your budget is tight like mine, you may want to try lapping film instead of stones. There is lots of love here for the film and it is the least costly way to get into honing.

Here is an exhaustive thread on the film: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/283576-Lapping-film-try-it

See post #29 for a great condensed guide to film honing.

Click to expand...

Do you use Chrome Oxide at all? I was wondering if the flat-strop would be appropriate for that, or if just balsa wood is better.

How do pastes compare to films, do you know? Yes, the films do look interesting and more affordable - thanks for the reference to lapping films guides. Coticule stones look particularly interesting though.... But I do think I'll probably stick to learning SR shaving and stropping for a year or so before I really get into stones/films.

Welcome to this side of wet shaving and yes those strops will do fine for now. The advice I was given when I started was to have my razor honed by a pro and learn to shave, strop and make a slick wet lather appropriate for shaving with a str8. I was told that I may be hard on my first edge as a newbe and I did wreck my first edge the FIRST time I TRIED to strop that razor. I was told that I would probably nick my strop and I did. I was told that I probably would nick my face and I did. So the guys here are pretty well right as far as I'm concerned, I do follow their advice and one of my best decisions was to go to a meet-up. I got myself a mentor and received some great one on one training. This is some of their advice passed on to you.
As far as honing and stones are concerned "they" told me to not go there until I could shave and strop well, so I bought the stones that "they" recommended and did not use them until my shaving skills were well established. The stones that were recommended are the Norton 1,4 and 8k water stones and "they" were right again. These stones are fairly easy to learn on and provide comfortable close and consistent shaves if I do my part. Is there more to learn, yes and you can bet I will be paying very close attention when "they" give freely of their advice. It's my hope that at least some of this is helpful to you, I know it was for me. Keep at it and have fun.
FrankC

Quality advice from everybody above. I have to agree with Frank that you may want to hold off on honing until you have had a chance to develop good shaving and stropping technique. As far as pastes go, I have had good luck with a CrOx balsa strop. These are used differently than hones and film. With pastes you lead with the spine the same as stropping, as opposed to leading with the edge when honing.

Thanks Frank & emt88, that all sounds like good advice. I've also got a Poor Man's Unemployed Servant's Strop Kit [i.e. a flawed poor man's strop kit] on order from Whippeddog - that includes a loaded CrOx & FerOx balsa strop. I'll start with the leather/canvas strop(s) and then use the balsa strop as needed to start with. Probably send it back out for the 1st required rehoning (in 6 months? 1 year?). But, assuming I'm sticking with SRs, I would like to learn honing after that.

If i were planning to acquire honing supplies in a piece-by-piece rather than fell-swoop fashion, what would make sense to get first (thinking about the future here, not talking about immediate purchases)? A 12k stone? An 8k stone? (I saw some posts suggesting that 12k is just too fine to be that useful, and that 8k was better to concentrate on) Some films? Another strop to load with a different compound (like some sort of diamond paste?)?

I use 1k, 4k, 8k nortons then a jnat to finish up on. also have a few old barber hones I will from time to time use. the 1k sets the bevel and the other stones refine the edge. pastes I don't use so cannot help there. then theres is the coticule which will do it all they say.