My New Journey into Straights

Hi all,

Let me first start by saying wow, there is a lot of info on here regarding straight razors with a wealth of info for a newbie.

I have been DE shaving for almost a year and I've notice my skin is a lot happier now and I tossed all my carts to the side. My skin is less irritated and I have far less bumps with a DE then carts. & now that I'm comfortable with DEs I'm ready to jump into Straights.

After talking with member Iishijia he brought up a lot of good ideas that I would of never known, one being practice with a tongue depressor to build muscle memory.

He also said start with a cheap razor & strop so to speak because there is a curve to be had, and more and likely I will cut my strop while learning.

Low and behold my question is what do you guys recommend for a cheap razor that I can learn on slowly and that is shave ready out of the box so to speak.

Any recommendations are much appreciated and looking forward to learning how to use a straight and build my way up to one day throwing down a sharp edge on a classy looking straight.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to a nice clean shave

Have a look at www.whippeddog.com for a shave ready vintage razor that won't cost an arm and a leg. Same guy for a cheap but good badger brush, and expendable beginner strop. His 24mm silvertip brush is a very good value for the $. You will probably not destroy your first brush, so may as well get a decent one. Poor Man Strop Kit, flawed sight unseen razor, 24mm silvertip brush, all in for I guess about $80. Doesn't get much cheaper than that. Get a second razor if budget allows. Good to have a backup. When the first one gets dull you still have the backup to use while you send the other out for honing, or while you are teaching yourself to hone it.

There are members selling shave ready Gold Dollar razors for cheap, and they would make a quite satisfactory beginner razor. Also, keep an eye on BST for one-off offers. Beware of ebay sellers who represent their razors as shave-ready. EVERYBODY says their razors are shave ready, but most of the fleabay sellers do not even shave with a straight razor and wouldn't know a shave ready edge from a pocketknife. There are some good ebay sellers though. If a seller has a store and has several dozen razors listed, and has high feedback, that might be a good one.

Larry's (whippeddog) Poor Man strop is very basic, and is meant to be the cheapest way to get started. If you want to move up a notch, try to find a strop held together with Chicago screws. Usually you will slice up the right hand edge, if you are right handed. Once you are confident you won't destroy your strop with the Death of 1000 Cuts, you can turn the leather end for end, and this puts the damaged edge on the left. If it is a 3" strop, nicks in the left edge won't be particularly troublesome. Starting with the Poor Man is good, though. When you upgrade, if the Poor Man is still in one piece, it makes a good travel strop.

+1 to Whipped Dog!!

Good luck on your journey!

Thank you for the info and advice

Thank you, I've read it and had a few questions about some hardware in the pm. Just want to thank you and everyone else that is helping me through the early stages of my shaving with straights.

doc47 said:

I am here to really help you start SR shaving, follow the link in my signature. Then PM me before you by buy anything, please. I am sending you some good information via PM, I know it will be of help. Oh, I'm sorry I guess I should have welcomed you first. Welcome to B&B.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm... he is still one month, and 4 posts shy of qualifying.