Razor Rec

[wbusby1]

Hi all,

I'm finally feeling ready to jump into straight razor honing but have a few questions. Mainly it's whether or not I should jump in and what kind of razor you'd recommend I acquire.

I'm a professional knife sharpener and have some awareness of straight razor honing and sharpening --read about it before and have sharpened many adjacent blades (japanese single bevel knives and tools, mandolin blades, chisels, etc).

The main reason I've waited so long to switch from a disposable razor is that I'm a gent with very low facial hair, I could grow a thin/spotty mustache in a couple weeks and a spotty beard mostly just on the tip of the chin, so I'm not sure it's totally worth it. I don't like the idea of disposable razors but I like that I can use them in or after a hot shower without shaving cream. I'd ideally like to never need shaving cream or other shaving products other than a razor and the sharpening stones I already have.

If y'all think I should get a razor, what kind should I look for? For kitchen knives I tend to prefer japanese over american/western even though they may be more delicate, I enjoy the higher quality steel and design. Japanese meaning something like hitachi steel and truly handmade, not like Shun & co.

Should I jump in? What razor should I get? What am I missing?

Not sure this is the correct place to post this, should it be in Off Topic?

 

[Heckel7302]

@stringer

 

[stringer]

Hi all,

I'm finally feeling ready to jump into straight razor honing but have a few questions. Mainly it's whether or not I should jump in and what kind of razor you'd recommend I acquire.

I'm a professional knife sharpener and have some awareness of straight razor honing and sharpening --read about it before and have sharpened many adjacent blades (japanese single bevel knives and tools, mandolin blades, chisels, etc).

The main reason I've waited so long to switch from a disposable razor is that I'm a gent with very low facial hair, I could grow a thin/spotty mustache in a couple weeks and a spotty beard mostly just on the tip of the chin, so I'm not sure it's totally worth it. I don't like the idea of disposable razors but I like that I can use them in or after a hot shower without shaving cream. I'd ideally like to never need shaving cream or other shaving products other than a razor and the sharpening stones I already have.

If y'all think I should get a razor, what kind should I look for? For kitchen knives I tend to prefer japanese over american/western even though they may be more delicate, I enjoy the higher quality steel and design. Japanese meaning something like hitachi steel and truly handmade, not like Shun & co.

Should I jump in? What razor should I get? What am I missing?

Not sure this is the correct place to post this, should it be in Off Topic?

I can ship you a shave ready beater razor for not much more than shipping that you could try. And then you can think about if it is really right for you. PM if you are interested. The other thing you have to have to get started is a decent hanging strop. You need to strop between each shave. Buying a "shave ready" razor is generally a crapshoot. Restoring a razor from ebay is a skill. Even picking a razor that will be good to restore and getting it for a decent price is a skill in itself. Honing a razor is a skill. It is a deep rabbit hole with deep learning curves. It also can take a lot of equipment. You might already be a knife sharpener and have stones, but stones for razors and stones for knives don't necessarily overlap. There are some honing and shaving videos on my youtube.

https://youtube.com/@garfilo1?si=r7UtW6vkOQPnvkza

And we have a pretty active ongoing razor thread here

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/lets-have-a-new-razor-thread.43148/

And several of us are members at Badger and Blade, a shaving forum which isn't nearly as active as KKF, but is the best place to get info about razors, razor hones, strops, etc.