Thread: Hello

Originally Posted by DMA

Thanks for the generous welcome guys, and I am taking your comments on board.
I've spent hours researching everything from shaving to stropping and honing.
Fortunately I sharpen all my own Japanese style kitchen knives so I have some experience with using honing stones, and have a leather strop designed for kitchen knives which is unused, so until I get the paddle strop that is winging its way to meal one with other goodies, I thought that I could use that to ensure that the razor is shave ready for my first real shave.

Actually if your razor came to you shave ready you should NOT strop it before your first shave

Also be aware that the skill sets for sharpening a razor and a kitchen knife really don't translate over. I do both myself and I can tell you learning to make a razor shave ready is a completely different world...

I've been watching Lynn's video's and it is a real eye opener, so it's a whole new learning experience. I'm still awaiting the arrival of my new toys, it takes a fair bit of time getting stuff sent from the UK and US, I feel like a kid checking for parcels each day.

Originally Posted by DMA

I feel like a kid checking for parcels each day.

We all know that feeling!

I too recently started straight razor shaving (16 shaves in) and also hit the ground running with a top of the line razor, brush, soaps and strop and I'm really glad I did. My Hart Kamisori was shave ready, so no issue there, and I get to learn on equipment I would have ended up gravitating toward eventually anyway. Good luck and have fun!!