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The Interactive Guide to Straight Razor Shaving

Table of Contents for The Interactive Guide to Straight Razor Shaving:
  1. Why a straight razor?
  2. DE VS Straight - Which one for me?
  3. Ok, I want a straight razor, what do I need?
  4. What is a shave ready razor?
  5. Selecting a razor:
    1. Different parts of a straight razor
    2. Grind
    3. Width of Blade
    4. Type of Tip/Point
    5. Carbon VS Stainless Steel
    6. Razor Brands: the new, the vintage, and the bad!
    7. Things to look for when/if selecting a custom razor
  6. Honing how-to's
    1. How to lap/flatten your hone
    2. Creating the initial bevel
    3. Polishing/establishing the shaving sharp edge
    4. Finishing via hones
    5. Finishing via pasted strop
    6. Edge Thickness (AKA Sharpness) Tests Vs. Edge Uniformity Tests - Bevel Creation Guide
  7. Different hones explained
    1. What do you need, and what's recommended?
    2. What does a slurry stone do, and what are they?
    3. Norton 4K/8K
    4. Belgian Yellow Coticule (New & Vintage)
    5. Chinese 12K
    6. “Barber Hones”
    7. Spyderco hones (Medium, Fine, Extra Fine)
    8. Kitayama
    9. Abrasive Pasted Strops
    10. Dovo Tortoise Special Hone Comparison/Results....
  8. Stropping how to’s
    1. Selecting a strop – what you need.
    2. How to use your hanging strop.
    3. How to take care of your strop.
    4. How to apply abrasive paste to your strop.
  9. The straight razor shave
    1. How to hold the razor, and the importance of blade angle…
    2. The do’s and don’ts!
    3. A Basic Straight Razor Shave
    4. Video of me straight razor shaving..
  10. The proper care of your straight razor
    1. Caring for your Carbon or Stainless Steel razor..."]Caring for your Carbon or Stainless Steel Razor & Creating a De-Humidifier
    2. Caring for your razors scales
    3. When/where to use metal polish, and where/when not to!

Gentlemen,
An interactive guide to straight razor shaving currently does not exist… so let me be the first to welcome you to the beginnings of the first!

The basic idea is a general table of contents, which is comprised of links to specific articles, and key areas of interest regarding straight razor shaving. The benefit to this type of guide is that readers can quickly, and easily get to topics and articles of which they have specific interest to. Trying to read through page after page of a “story” like guide doesn’t help when you’re in your bathroom, face covered with lather… nor will a video or DVD… what will? VERY specific posts, and information you can quickly/easily read and use, or print and reference… and do so for free! So I know what you are thinking… what’s the interactive part? The interactive part is the fact that this guide is 1.) Ever-changing… new topics in the table of contents will frequently be added 2.) Users can post questions, and/or add additional content by posting replies to the main threads (links from the TOC) – as if someone has a question on say, the Spyderco Ultra-Fine hone, one can go to section 7 – 7 read about the hones, and if desired ask specific questions, of which will be in context to the topic, without having to preface it, or fumble around – thus actually ADDING to the guide, and creating a more comprehensive guide through interacting with it and our members.

Members can submit article requests, and/or submit new/completed articles/topics (to moderators) to be included/added to the guide!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Alright fellas - 4 more of the topics above are now blue hot links to active threads/posts with pictures, etc. I'll finish one more sometime tonight, then I'll be back at it full force tomorrow!

:thumbup:
 
Fantastic job, Joel! :thumbup:

And it couldn't have come at a better time, I've got a straight razor that should be arriving in the mail tomorrow. :badger:

Edit: My straight arrived and after thoroughly reading this thread, it is truly an amazing resource. Well done, Joel. Thank you for taking the time.
 
Wow! Thanks for all the hard work.

I'm not even remotely interested in straights. I was drawn in to read just because the topics look so well organized and copious. So I read just 2 articles; very well written. Now I'm interested, if not in using a straight razor, then just for learning about them.
 
Really looks good, I'm being good and not getting all goofy on the carbon vs (that other steel) :biggrin: tread... I just don't like the stuff .... No life in it... Ok ok backing off hehe...

Between this and Lynn's DVD I think the modern straight razor community is well informed.
 
Brilliant, well done mate, they should change your thingee under your name to
"St Joel - Patron saint of shaving info"
 
Hey Joel,

You've probably thought about this, but how about adding a list of resident or non-resident Honemeisters (with their permission of course) with ways to contacting them? I saw this on SRP's guide and thought it would be a great addition. That way you wouldn't see a thread inundated with Honemeister requests.
Just my . 02 my man.

Lawrence
 
:thumbup1: From a newbie at str8 shaving thank you sooo much. Here's hoping I don't cut of my nose with this thing. lol With all this detailed info I feel a little more confident.
 
Excellent! I was thinking about buying one of your sets the other day but knew I'd just end up cutting myself up and giving up. I'll read through all this stuff and then think about trying it all out.
 
What a great effort - kinda puts mine to shame! Is there a direct URL link to the guide? Reason I ask is that I'm always being asked for just this sort of thing and it would help enquirers a whole lot if I could email them and say 'look no further - click here for a mine of info'. That would be great. :c6:
 
FYI - all the topics should be completed/links on Monday or Tuesday, and I'll be adding the video of me straight razor shaving from the B&B DVD (done a few years ago) as well!
 
All of the links, save for the straight razor shaving video are up and live!

Please feel free to suggest new sections/topics, as well as add new content! If you have new articles, topics, please don't hesitate to submit them!

Enjoy!
 
All of the links, save for the straight razor shaving video are up and live!

Please feel free to suggest new sections/topics, as well as add new content! If you have new articles, topics, please don't hesitate to submit them!

Enjoy!

One more quick comment - I can/will PDF this into one big ole guide if there is interest!
 
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