Beginner Straight Razor Questions

I am thinking about getting into shaving with straight razor. I do not want to break the bank with my first razor, so I’ll probably get a gold dollar 208. The strop that I get will be a “beginner” strop. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole and get accessories at this point. 
Questions:
A) What should I be looking for in a strop?
B) Should I get a honing stone in the beginning or sent the razor somewhere to be honed?
C) If I get a honing stone, how often should the razor be honed?
D) Is there a specific grit that I should use?

Thanks.

I am thinking about getting into shaving with straight razor. I do not want to break the bank with my first razor, so I’ll probably get a gold dollar 208. The strop that I get will be a “beginner” strop. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole and get accessories at this point. 
Questions:
A) What should I be looking for in a strop?
B) Should I get a honing stone in the beginning or sent the razor somewhere to be honed?
C) If I get a honing stone, how often should the razor be honed?
D) Is there a specific grit that I should use?

Thanks.

Hi
I started using straight razors not long ago and I beleibve I can be of some assistance:

Strop - Get a good one!
Heirloom is a very good option, https://heirloomrazorstrop.com

Honing: I got my first Boker Honed and got my vintage Henckels and honed my self, I did a much better job. It depends if you are good and have the tendency to be creative, Honing - start with basics 1k, 4K, 8k, 12k synthetic. https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com Is a good place.
If you do a proper hone, it will last for 2-3 months 
Choose one hone Master to follow and follow by the letter, YouTube has many good dudes, I follow “Matt the doctor” DrMatt357

I finde that vintage razors are superior (generally speaking) to modern mass production. Henckels, Filarmónica first and second Gen, Japanese, all are amazing.
You can get them on eBay at a reasonable price and hone yourself, 
General rule  it has to look good to be good, has to be a reputable maker, attached is a photo of my Henckels 

A good razor with a correct hone will give you an amazing shave even though you are just learning, 
I got to a parallel shave to my Wolfman after 8 shaves, 

I wish you best of luck and much joy on your new journey, very exciting 

I am thinking about getting into shaving with straight razor. I do not want to break the bank with my first razor, so I’ll probably get a gold dollar 208. The strop that I get will be a “beginner” strop. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole and get accessories at this point. 
Questions:
A) What should I be looking for in a strop?
B) Should I get a honing stone in the beginning or sent the razor somewhere to be honed?
C) If I get a honing stone, how often should the razor be honed?
D) Is there a specific grit that I should use?

Thanks.

Hi
I started using straight razors not long ago and I beleibve I can be of some assistance:

Strop - Get a good one!
Heirloom is a very good option, https://heirloomrazorstrop.com

Honing: I got my first Boker Honed and got my vintage Henckels and honed my self, I did a much better job. It depends if you are good and have the tendency to be creative, Honing - start with basics 1k, 4K, 8k, 12k synthetic. https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com Is a good place.
If you do a proper hone, it will last for 2-3 months 
Choose one hone Master to follow and follow by the letter, YouTube has many good dudes, I follow “Matt the doctor” DrMatt357

I finde that vintage razors are superior (generally speaking) to modern mass production. Henckels, Filarmónica first and second Gen, Japanese, all are amazing.
You can get them on eBay at a reasonable price and hone yourself, 
General rule  it has to look good to be good, has to be a reputable maker, attached is a photo of my Henckels 

A good razor with a correct hone will give you an amazing shave even though you are just learning, 
I got to a parallel shave to my Wolfman after 8 shaves, 

I wish you best of luck and much joy on your new journey, very exciting 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. Your henckel’s razor is beautiful.

I'll go a different route.

1) My usual advice is to get a razor honed by a well-respected person - that will allow you to know what a well-honed razor feels like. Not all 'experienced people' do an equally good job. Look up reviews for the person honing your razor.
2) If you are intent on getting the Gold Dollar, then keep in mind that it will not be shave-ready, regardless of how sharp it 'feels'.
3) Honing is not hard to pick up, but good hones usually wind up being expensive. I'd suggest getting lapping film to start with. You can get a variety from someplace like Taylor Toolworks. Lapping film is not cost-effective in the long run, but it will do a great job for a while. Unless you jump down the rabbit hole and buy a bunch of razors, a set of lapping film at various grits will serve you well.
4) Keep in mind that it can take quite a while to get good at shaving with a straight. You're not going to get it right the first time and you may still be working on it months after you first start using the razor.

I'll go a different route.

1) My usual advice is to get a razor honed by a well-respected person - that will allow you to know what a well-honed razor feels like. Not all 'experienced people' do an equally good job. Look up reviews for the person honing your razor.
2) If you are intent on getting the Gold Dollar, then keep in mind that it will not be shave-ready, regardless of how sharp it 'feels'.
3) Honing is not hard to pick up, but good hones usually wind up being expensive. I'd suggest getting lapping film to start with. You can get a variety from someplace like Taylor Toolworks. Lapping film is not cost-effective in the long run, but it will do a great job for a while. Unless you jump down the rabbit hole and buy a bunch of razors, a set of lapping film at various grits will serve you well.
4) Keep in mind that it can take quite a while to get good at shaving with a straight. You're not going to get it right the first time and you may still be working on it months after you first start using the razor.

Thank you for the advice.

If you want to purchase a Gold Dollar razor, I highly recommend that you purchase it from someone who modifies the heal of the razor and then hones it properly. That is not a task that you want to take on as a newby. I purchased mine from Wet Shaving Products. The cost for shave ready is $49.99. The cost of an unhoned razor is only $19.99 but the cost of honing is well worth it. For one thing, Lee will go through the razors and pick the best candidates to make shave ready.

If you are on a super tight budget, go to your local crafts store and purchase some vegetable tanned tooling leather. You can glue a piece to a wood backing and have a respectable bench strop. Otherwise, you can purchase one of Whipped Dog Poor Man's Strop. However, I do agree with the recommendation to get a strop from Tony Miller at Heirloom Razor Strop Company. He sells a plain vanilla strop that should serve your well. Stropping is a skill to master. It is highly likely that you will slice and nick your first strop until your learn to master the flip at the top and bottom of the stroke. You can repair minor nicks, but sooner or later you will want to replace the leather component. Tony sells replacement parts so you can repair or even upgrade your strop.

While the Gold Dollar razor can provide a decent straight razor shave, the craftsmanship is not very good and the steel will not hold its edge as long as better quality razors. Thus, it will need to have the edge refreshed. Whether that will need to be done in days, weeks or months depends upon your shaving needs.

There are many different ways to maintain your straight razor. Some people use natural sharpening stones. Some use synthetic hones. Some use lapping film. Some use strops pasted with ultra fine abrasives. Some people can shave off an 8K Norton hone. Others like me, need a far sharper, smoother edge. The subject is far to complex to cover here. Do some searches for straight razor sharpening.

If you want to purchase a Gold Dollar razor, I highly recommend that you purchase it from someone who modifies the heal of the razor and then hones it properly. That is not a task that you want to take on as a newby. I purchased mine from Wet Shaving Products. The cost for shave ready is $49.99. The cost of an unhoned razor is only $19.99 but the cost of honing is well worth it. For one thing, Lee will go through the razors and pick the best candidates to make shave ready.

If you are on a super tight budget, go to your local crafts store and purchase some vegetable tanned tooling leather. You can glue a piece to a wood backing and have a respectable bench strop. Otherwise, you can purchase one of Whipped Dog Poor Man's Strop. However, I do agree with the recommendation to get a strop from Tony Miller at Heirloom Razor Strop Company. He sells a plain vanilla strop that should serve your well. Stropping is a skill to master. It is highly likely that you will slice and nick your first strop until your learn to master the flip at the top and bottom of the stroke. You can repair minor nicks, but sooner or later you will want to replace the leather component. Tony sells replacement parts so you can repair or even upgrade your strop.

While the Gold Dollar razor can provide a decent straight razor shave, the craftsmanship is not very good and the steel will not hold its edge as long as better quality razors. Thus, it will need to have the edge refreshed. Whether that will need to be done in days, weeks or months depends upon your shaving needs.

There are many different ways to maintain your straight razor. Some people use natural sharpening stones. Some use synthetic hones. Some use lapping film. Some use strops pasted with ultra fine abrasives. Some people can shave off an 8K Norton hone. Others like me, need a far sharper, smoother edge. The subject is far to complex to cover here. Do some searches for straight razor sharpening.

Thank you RayClem

I  ran into this thread by accident, so please excuse my late response.  I currently have about five razors in my den, and two are Gold Dollars.  One is a slightly modified  208  (stabilizers removed, heel and toe softened, polished, new scales) that I have been  shaving with for over ten years.  The other is a relatively new 300.  To say that a Gold Dollar will not hold its edge is not my experience.  The 208 is a beefy razor with a Rockwell hardness rating of  61.  That is just as hard as a Boker or any other quality razor.  Most agree that the metallurgy on  Gold Dollars is pretty good.  My experience with my 208 is that a refresh on an Arkansas stone followed by a pasted canvas strop  every six months is all I need to do to maintain the razor. There should never be a need to reset the bevel unless you have damaged the edge, allowed the razor to rust, etc.  The 300 surprised me.  It has a different geometry than the 208.  The spine is much thinner giving a more acute bevel and a more aggressive shave, and the stabilizer is less pronounced.  It weighs quite a bit less too.  Very little was needed to make it shave ready-see my review on this website.  Neither of those razors had any serious flaw in geometry except a smile in the spine which all GD's seem to have.

I think that anyone with very basic honing skills would do fine with a modern Gold Dollar.  Their metallurgy has always been OK, and my limited experience with them suggests that their quality control is getting better. 

As far as equipment you would need to get one shave ready, in addition to  a 4k/8k cheap Chinese wet stone, a 10k-12k Arkansas stone and a pasted canvas strop (get the cheapest strop you can find-it is just a piece of leather) the most important thing is a 20x-50x magnifier so you can see the edge, see what is wrong with it and see the effect of your honing. 

Having a beautifully restored Filarmonica  would be a real pleasure.  But don't let anyone tell you  that you can not get a good shave from a Gold Dollar.  If I had to guess, there are probably millions of men who shave with them.  It is an every-man's razor in China.  Trying to buy vintage razor''s on line and restore them is very risky.  You can't possibly judge the edge on line.  You have no idea if the razor was badly rusted and then polished for the photo.  If the pits from the oxidation go through the mid-line of the bevel, you will wind up with chips in the edge when you re-set the bevel.  If you have to reset the bevel many times to get to good steel, now you are changing the geometry of the razor.  You would be better off with a new GD that isn't corroded, as long as the spine isn't twisted or bent, etc.

Note to self - Do not go here, quit looking at straight razors.

RayClem's comment about cutting your leather strop is right on target. I use one for my kitchen knives. I've wrecked a few and I thought I was being careful.

I agree with everything Ray said. Plus I'd say stay away from Gold Dollar. You know the saying you get what you pay for. I will leave it at that.