I bought a straight... now what

I was just half fooling around, bidding on some straights on German eBay, and lo and behold I won one (expected to be easily outbid... did I pay too much?)

It's a 6/8 Revisor. Did some searching here before I bid. They seem to have a reasonable reputation.

I paid 91 euros. Probably too much, I don't care it's a nice starter.

But now. I'm going to wait before I start shaving with it. I'm still technically a DE newbie (using a Slant, generally nick free now and getting good shaves about 90% of the time).

I need a strop and some good advice. Will check out as much info as I can find and look forward to this new adventure!

You can get the best strops from Tony Miller

The Well Shaved Gentleman

+1 on Tony's strops.

If I could go back and start over with sr8 shaving, I would have had my first one honed by a pro instead of trying to do it myself. I dunno the condition of your razor but it might be something to think about.

Monkeyboy said:

+1 on Tony's strops.

If I could go back and start over with sr8 shaving, I would have had my first one honed by a pro instead of trying to do it myself. I dunno the condition of your razor but it might be something to think about.

Click to expand...

Monkeyboy has a sensible suggestion. The other side of the coin is that you could fool around with the new str8. Try shaving a few times, practice stropping without worrying about messing the edge up too much, and if (when?) you started to get frustrated you could send it off to one of the fellas here for honing. It all depends upon how much you like to mess around. If you are of the serious nature whom is easily frustrated, I'd send it off right away.
Best regards, Ken.
There's really no wrong way to goof off.

Take it to get honed, preferably by someone in your area so you can watch them do it, and they can give you hands on advice for you to get started, and show you how to strop properly. That's what I did, and my first shave (which wasn't even two weeks ago) and following shaves were MAGNIFICENT.

I presume you got one form germanrazors. He's a good vendor, I bought an excellent Schlieper from him. I don't think you paid too much, Revisors are popular. New razors hardly ever come shave-ready, stropping alone is not enough. Hone her or get her honed to avoid disappointment. There's plenty instructions here and on SRP to get you going. Read Joel's interactive straight shaving guide, it'll tell you all you need to know to get started.

Starter strop?

Smooth leather belt.

Kees said:

I presume you got one form germanrazors. He's a good vendor, I bought an excellent Schlieper from him. I don't think you paid too much, Revisors are popular. New razors hardly ever come shave-ready, stropping alone is not enough. Hone her or get her honed to avoid disappointment. There's plenty instructions here and on SRP to get you going. Read Joel's interactive straight shaving guide, it'll tell you all you need to know to get started.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'm a total newbie on straights. The Revisor is indeed from germanrazors. I felt ok about the vendor after poking around on German eBay. Perhaps you have some advice about getting razors honed in NL. I don't want to start with anything that will ruin my enthusiasm on the first "date".

LX_Emergency hones for food. Ask him. I am very busy ATM but am willing to do it for you if you are not in a hurry/are prepared to allow me approx. 2 weeks to hone them. You can always PM me.

Congrats on your frst str8 purchase.

The 'Revisor' has a decent reputation and so should be able to provide you with a good shave.

As has been said already, you must get it properly honed. Shaving with a blunt razor will result in injury, as you will end up applying pressure onto the blade to cut the whiskers.

A sharp blade will practically glide over the surface of the skin when used with correct technique.

I would suggest that you try to read and learn as much as you can before taking your first str8 shave, it will help considerably.

With respect to strops. Try getting something like one of Tony Miller's starter strops. They are fairly inexpensive and when you are learning you will nick it. Eventually you might want something a bit more special like his Artisan strop.

Good luck and keep posting with you progress.

Welcome to the dark side, the Revisor is a good solid performer and the 6/8 is about the perfect starter razor....
I think everyone has already givin you all the best starting advise, one thing with TM's strops you can get almost any of his upper end stuff with the starter strop option so you end up with 2 strops.....
A huge +1 on the get it honed, and better yet if anyone lives close watch them hone it......

Thanks for all the great replies. I hardly expected to be interested in straights but once you start looking at them closely... they really can be beautiful aesthetic artisan creations, which hook you even before you've applied one to your unsuspecting naked cheeks.


I will certainly be keeping in touch about the progress of this new aspect of my new shaving 'hobby'. But for now I'll just get myself as well informed as I can, and will certainly look into getting a good starter's strop before I even attempt a shave. Kees, I'll be in touch via PM when the razor arrives... thanks for your advice.

Now the Revisor has arrived, and I'm thinking if I might be better off with a 5/8size. The 6/8 seems quite a hefty thing for a newbie. I still don't have a strop so I'll hang back before trying the straight experience, and keep an eye open for a 5/8 on German eBay. And of course I'll get it honed first.

What do you think about 6/8 as a beginning size?

Well, the first thing you should do is go out and tell all of your friends that you use a straight razor. The women will love you, and the men will fear you.

Welcome to the club!

What to do? SHAVE!

Let us know how things turn out.

ouch said:

Well, the first thing you should do is go out and tell all of your friends that you you a straight razor. The women will love you, and the men will fear you.

Click to expand...

haha good one!

ouch said:

Well, the first thing you should do is go out and tell all of your friends that you you a straight razor. The women will love you, and the men will fear you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder...I forgot about that part.

Now that you have your razor read this...LINK

Limey said:

Thanks for the reminder...I forgot about that part.

Click to expand...

You mean there's another part? Oh, baby, this is getting better and better.

ouch said:

Well, the first thing you should do is go out and tell all of your friends that you use a straight razor. The women will love you, and the men will fear you.

Click to expand...

You mean I'll be looking like Scarface?