Requesting Newbie Straight Razor Advice

G

Guy McVer

Joined
Mar 22, 2022
Messages
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I want to start using a straight razor to shave with.

I have never used one before. To start myself off, I want something which is:

1. Budget oriented, but...

2. ...Not junk, and...

3. ...Easy to sharpen.

I want to go cheap because I will likely buy more than one so that I can practice on one and use the other as a backup and a point of reference.

I do not want to have to spend too much time sharpening, because that would make it too impractical. I was thinking of a chisel grind for the simplicity, but I don't know whether a chisel grind is a bad idea or not because I don't have any experience using one to shave.

Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated. This also includes random and general tips related to the subject of straight razors and shaving with them. I welcome that too.
 
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That's a big set of questions. The reality is that you will not get any of your three criteria. It's not that easy, even though straight prices are not so insane as they were a few years ago, they are still expensive if you want anything at all good. But budget is subjective, I'd expect right now to pay around 100$usd for something nearing shave ready. Not much new in that range last I looked, and unless you want to really gun for vintage on your own, you'd burn past that easily before you find a decent razor in all likelihood.

What do you have for sharpening gear? I don't own any stones that are used on both knives and razors, but you might have something that will work as a starting point.

What are your overall time-budget, $-budget, and current shave method?

To exaggerate to make a point, you are asking which F1-car will be good to drive without telling anyone if you even have a learner's permit yet (Yes, I'm exaggerating, and making a point)
What do you use now? How often do you need to shave, and what is your hope for this project. It's a deep rabbit hole, and while it would seem logical that there would be a lot of cross-over, there really isn't. But if you have room for another expensive hobby, lets go!

To be clear, I'm not trying to throw a wet towel on the idea, but I need more info before I can be much more help.
 
I'm not ready to be a snob about the subject. I just want to get my foot in the door. I'll feel my way out from there. If that means starting with a crap razor, then I guess I'm fine with that. I ruined a few knives teaching myself how to sharpen, and I'll probably ruin a few straight razors too.

I had no idea I was going to need to dump 100-200 bucks into this just to start. If that's truly the case, then I actually don't want to do it.

Thanks for your input. I truly do appreciate it. :):thumbsup:
 
The tough part of learning to hone a razor is that you need the feedback it provides by doing it's job well. Sorta the same as with a knife, but much more-so. It also means very flat stones in a grit range that very few will ever use on an EDC knife. It would be very frustrating to start only to find out you have gone down the wrong track (this I know from experience)

What I would consider though, is looking into shaving with a double-edged safety razor. The budget is really not that bad once you consider what the average cost is for a few packs of cartridges. Sure you could up-front it all at once, or you can start with a decent brush and a good soap, then get a mid-range razor handle and selection of blades, try things out slowly, and over time you will probably end up with as good or better shaves with a consumables cost that starts to approach the lower double-digit dollars per year.
 
Guy McVer said:
I want to start using a straight razor to shave with.

I have never used one before. To start myself off, I want something which is:

1. Budget oriented, but...

2. ...Not junk, and...

3. ...Easy to sharpen.

I want to go cheap because I will likely buy more than one so that I can practice on one and use the other as a backup and a point of reference.

I do not want to have to spend too much time sharpening, because that would make it too impractical. I was thinking of a chisel grind for the simplicity, but I don't know whether a chisel grind is a bad idea or not because I don't have any experience using one to shave.

Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated. This also includes random and general tips related to the subject of straight razors and shaving with them. I welcome that too.
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It can be done cheaply but it all takes some investment in time. Both learning to shave and honing.
 
I’ve had good luck with this:
60F3759B-3BC4-4B3C-BFAA-56E5F54F5353.jpeg
Found on the Bay for around $70 if I recall.

It had a couple of very small chips that needed to be sharpened out, and then it worked great.

I set the edge with my ultra-fine Spyderco bench stone and since then just use natural rocks and the strop in the picture (homemade and attached to a chunk of chert with double-sided tape.

I say go for it - it’s actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it.
 
Whoa, thanks for the thread, this is the exact thread I was going to start.

I want to know how a guy did it a hundred years ago, with nothing but a razor and leather, or whatever was around at the time, without the overload of choices nowadays.
I have a Sharpmaker, a King 300 Stone, and a strop with diamond compound freshly applied.
 
They actually mostly didn't. From historical documents, memoirs, and such, for most of civilian life, working-class men who had access to a barber would likely get a shave Saturday in anticipation for Sunday dinner. They may own their own razor, and may do their own shaving periodically, especially those who were on the lower end of the economic spectrum, but honing would be done by a pro, and rarely. Basically, your economic status would depend on how often you paid to be shaved. Those who were white-collar who were expected to be clean-shaven, but were more frugal might own a few razors or even a "seven day set" which they might use through the week and get stropped by someone once a week. Keep in mind that in the days of the straight razor, specialized domestic help was far more common and expected even for those of "modest" upper-end means. The only guys who would do their own stropping and shaving were those away from civilization and we see that in military contexts. Many navies permitted trimmed beards whereas armies were more apt to only allow mustaches. For obvious reasons, as well we see the difference between parade and field dress. There are stories of cattle drivers owning a razor so that they could shave once hitting their destination in hope of making a good impression with the local ladies. In such a case, a strop would be all that was needed to maintain the blade, and to be fair, they were not as picky, so any clean leather would have sufficed. Not too many guys going against the grain back then. There is a huge difference between straight shaving daily and weekly, a straight is one of the only methods where hair length plays little factor into the final result, and to a degree, a bit longer stubble makes for an easier shave. When it comes to the real upper crust, who shaved themselves and who got a barber were probably a matter of personal taste and habit, but almost certainly if someone needed to shave daily, they were not maintaining their razors. To this end, the number of monogrammed seven-day sets that exist on the antique market proves that those guys were either sending them out, or someone was coming over to make sure the razors were keen.

The big shift in facial hair comes with the DE and King Camp Gillette getting his shave kits issued to US troops. That really changes the game and cultural expectations of what "clean-shaven" actually is.

We talk a lot about "back in the day" and skills a "man" had to have, but in reality, there are only so many hours in a day, and proficiency takes time, so while many old skills might have been "more common" they were by no means universal, and many were just skilled enough, never mind actually good at something. We absolutely don't have the specialized labor that they had in late 1800s early 1900s.
 
If you just want to start shaving, and are not worrying about honing yet, you can get something that uses replaceable double edge razors for about 20 bucks.
1655046951404.png
I don’t know how well they work on the face, but my barber used to use them to clean up the neck.
 
Shavette razors can be good, but the weight of the blade matters, so a lot of the "barber clean-up" are not great to learn on, as you have no momentum. But if the holder had some mass to it, then it's worth a try. The typical ones are pretty cheap as they are focused on the barber market which means autoclave-able and easy blade swapping, but there are a few companies that do full single-edged replaceable blades that are a bit longer than a DE.
 
I've used this one for the past 20 years:

Dovo,made in Solingen

1740_0.jpg


For a beginner,i recommend a razor with a round -ish tip, to avoid injury..also depends a bit on your facial structure,i guess.

Around critial areas like adams apple or jaw line,pull your skin with your other hand to avoid getting cut.

Don't be cheap with your razor,soap,brush or strop.It's your face,after all. A cheap razor won't cut well and will be a pain to strop etc.

Take your time to make good foam. Get a proper bowl and take at least a minute to make good foam.

Don't use a razor after a night of heavy drinking...ask me how i know...
 
RazorD said:
Been straight shaving and honing my razors for years. I’d suggest learning to shave with a straight and wait to learn honing. Badger and Blade is a great resource forum for more info.
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Try the Straight razor place web site. There’s a lot of good info there with folks happy and willing to help
 
GAGL said:
I've used this one for the past 20 years:

Dovo,made in Solingen

View attachment 1843404


For a beginner,i recommend a razor with a round -ish tip, to avoid injury..also depends a bit on your facial structure,i guess.

Around critial areas like adams apple or jaw line,pull your skin with your other hand to avoid getting cut.

Don't be cheap with your razor,soap,brush or strop.It's your face,after all. A cheap razor won't cut well and will be a pain to strop etc.

Take your time to make good foam. Get a proper bowl and take at least a minute to make good foam.

Don't use a razor after a night of heavy drinking...ask me how i know...
Click to expand...
Sounds like good advice
 
Nature Boy said:
If you just want to start shaving, and are not worrying about honing yet, you can get something that uses replaceable double edge razors for about 20 bucks.
View attachment 1842610
I don’t know how well they work on the face, but my barber used to use them to clean up the neck.
Click to expand...
By sheer luck I just ended up with one of these style razors, but the blades are different. They are more generic than the one in your picture. They look more like traditional disposable razors, but longer. They are not rounded on the end. I don't know the first thing about where to buy replacements or how to determine whether or not they will fit.

🤷‍♂️
 
Guy McVer said:
By sheer luck I just ended up with one of these style razors, but the blades are different. They are more generic than the one in your picture. They look more like traditional disposable razors, but longer. They are not rounded on the end. I don't know the first thing about where to buy replacements or how to determine whether or not they will fit.

🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
Try looking for "single edged razor blades" and looking at the ones that kinda look like a double-edged blade cut in half. Not the craft blades with the heavy folded spine, but ones that have indexing notches in the back. Unless you have one that uses a proprietary blade, they should work. There are also some plastic holders that you can get that are supposed to hold a split double-edged blade and "adapt" it into the shavette. Given the price of a 10 pack, odds are you are best off just doing some ebay searches, finding some different blades and experimenting. I'm guessing that your razor handle doesn't have much branding, since that would be the easy way to find out. There are a very few vintage handles that use a long rectangular blade without any notches, and in that case, you may well be out of luck. They look like a very large Schick Injector blade, and I have not seen any for several years, but who knows, things do turn up if you spend enough time looking.
 
gadgetgeek said:
Try looking for "single edged razor blades" and looking at the ones that kinda look like a double-edged blade cut in half. Not the craft blades with the heavy folded spine, but ones that have indexing notches in the back. Unless you have one that uses a proprietary blade, they should work. There are also some plastic holders that you can get that are supposed to hold a split double-edged blade and "adapt" it into the shavette. Given the price of a 10 pack, odds are you are best off just doing some ebay searches, finding some different blades and experimenting. I'm guessing that your razor handle doesn't have much branding, since that would be the easy way to find out. There are a very few vintage handles that use a long rectangular blade without any notches, and in that case, you may well be out of luck. They look like a very large Schick Injector blade, and I have not seen any for several years, but who knows, things do turn up if you spend enough time looking.
Click to expand...
The Straight Razor Place forum has a sell or trade section. They also have folks there who do razor honing for the public. Try looking there for what you want and a traditional razor, Before I started honing my own razor I had several honed from a member there and those were very sharp and produced a very good shave. as stated before they have some very good folks there from all over the world. I met folks from many different countrys.
 
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