Most of the time I shave with a DE razor, but do love shaving with a straight razor. What I do not like is the maintenance required to keep a straight razor sharp enough for my beard and smooth enough for my face. I can only get 3-4 good shaves from most DE blades and about twice that from a straight razor before it needs some touch up. Many people can get dozens of shaves before needing to have it rehoned. Fortunately, my refresh process is far quicker than a rehone.
If you purchase a straight razor from a factory, it is highly unlikely to be capable of giving a great shave out of the box. However, there are some vendors who are skilled at honing and can deliver your razor "shave ready", unless you are like me and prefer super sharp, super smooth edges. Now if you spend the money to purchase a custom straight razor, it should be well honed, but I cannot recommend doing that as a new straight razor user.
A couple of vendors worth checking our are Griffith Shaving Goods in RI and Maggard Razor in OH. If you decide to go with a fixed blade straight, here are a couple of pointers.
1, Many new straight razor shavers pick a 5/8" razor as they are less expensive. I only have one 5/8" razor and i NEVER use it. I much prefer 6/8" and 7/8" blades. Since d7/8" blades tend to be expensive, I would recommend a 6/8" if you can find one at a price you can afford. Surprisingly, the inexpensive Gold Dollar razors are 6/8", but unless you get on modified and honed professionally, I cannot recommend them to a newcomer. Get a blade you know is capable of getting a good shave.
2. Straight razor come with a variety of tip shapes. While I love Spanish, Irish, French and square points, they all require careful technique to avoid nicks from the tip. I recommend a newcomer start with a round point as they are more forgiving of poor technique.
3. While there are factory made blade from the likes of Dovo, Boker and Thiers Issard, too many hands in the production process can make for spotty quality, even with expensive razors. Two brands I recommend are Ralf Aust and Heribert Wacker, artisans from Germany. These are small shops who take pride in their work. I used to recommend Brian Brown of Brown Razor Works in TN, but his web site has been down for a while now. If you can find one of Brian's razors on the used market, it is worth considering. If you do purchase a razor from Dovo, Boker, or Thiers Issard, be sure to purchase from someone who can hone it properly. You do not have to worry about that with Ralf Aust and Wacker razors, they will be shave ready.
If you do purchase a straight razor, you will need a decent strop to maintain it. You do not need to get a super expensive strop, especially as a newcomer. There is a learning curve to master the muscle memory needed to strop a razor. During this process, you are highly likely to cut nicks into the strop face. While minor nicks can be sanded out, you do not want to do this with an expensive strop. I can recommend strops by Tony Miller of Heirloom Strop Company. He is a great guy. While he makes some very nice strops for experienced shavers, he also makes what he calls a Plain Vanilla and Plain Chocolate strops. While these strops are not made with the finest quality hardware, leather, and fabric components, they are good enough to get you started and last you are a good part of your journey until you are ready for a better strop. They are around $50.
Whipped dog makes a Poor Man's Strop costing $16. It can get you started, but it is only 2" wide (vs 3" for Tony' strop) and it only comes with as leather component. The $25 kit also includes a piece of polyester belt material to use as the cloth component. You can certainly start with a Whipped Dog strop and then upgrade to something better later.
There are some inexpensive barber-stype shavettes. I do not recommend them as the quality is poor, the balance is poor and they are too light for proper feel. Parker makes some shavettes like the Parker SRX that are slightly more expensive and a step up in quality. Many of these shavettes use half-DE blades which you can either purchase dcut in half or snap them in half yourself.
The best shavettes are ones my Kai Captain and Feather Artist Club shavettes. They are higher quality and will provide a shave more like a real straight razor. They use Feather Artist Club razor blades. There are a few varieties of these blade. If you decide to go the Artist Club route, do some research of the blade types available to make sure you select on suitable for your beard and experience level. You might want to start with the Feather Pro Guard blades. I beleive the Feather Pro Super blades are the most aggressive.
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