New to straight razors? Jump to the quick start.
collection: Razor accessories
Straight razor accessories – quick start
Viel braucht es nicht, um sich mit einem Straight razor zu rasieren. Es kommt auf deine Präferenzen an und wie tief du in das Ritual einsteigen möchtest.
Stropping
When a chef sharpens a knife, he pulls the steel against the edge. Why? Because he wants to remove excess burr from the edge.
If we did the same with a straight razor, the result would be – to put it mildly – painful. We need the burr because we shave with it.
And that is exactly what we do with the strop: We straighten the burr and align it in the direction of the edge. We do this before every shave, making the strop indispensable.
Drawing contours
If you have a beard and just want to outline the contours with a straight razor, ideally you should see what you are doing. For this, a shaving oil is ideal. It has three properties:
- Unlike foam, it is transparent. Therefore, you see what you are doing.
- It is an oil, so the blade glides better over the skin.
- The contained oils care for irritated skin and provide moisture.
Additionally, the blade glides significantly better over the skin thanks to the oils contained in the soap. These oils also penetrate the skin and return moisture.
Soften skin
Try this test: First, run a blade through a dry sheet of paper, then through a wet one. The dry paper cuts easily because it is brittle and resists bending. The wet paper cannot be cut; it stretches and yields.
Our skin behaves similarly. Shaving dry causes irritation and injuries. Wet and oiled skin is more flexible and yields to the blade. This is exactly what shaving soap foam achieves: it moistens and oils the skin.
Additionally, the blade glides much better over the skin thanks to the oils contained in the soap. These oils also penetrate the skin and restore moisture.
Foam maker
Nature leads the way, and we humans follow. For many things, we've succeeded, but not yet for badger hair. The badger still has the best hair for a shaving brush.
They retain water, but not too much. They are firm enough to create a good lather, yet pleasantly soft on the skin. They are also durable, allowing the shaving brush to last a very long time.
With us, you will find only pure badger hair and silvertip badger hair shaving brushes.
Not all foam is the same
Shaving foam has a texture. But what kind? There are differences:
The no-nonsense man takes a piece of soap and rubs it over his stubble in the shower. Some soap sticks. Rub briefly with hands. Done. A form of foam is created.
The man who celebrates a weekend ritual creates the foam and lets it mature for minutes. Time, air, and cold work against him. For this reason, we recommend the double-walled shaving bowl.
Hot water is poured into the space between the walls. The foam is warmed all around and does not collapse.
Sharpening yourself is in
Some straight razors don't need sharpening for months or even years. This has to do with experience. Their owners care for their favorites with patience and love.
An inexperienced user could completely remove the burr with a single pass over the strop. Then the blade must go back to the stone and the burr rebuilt.
Do it yourself. To get a blade sharp, you need:
- Our two sharpening stones,
- a strop (possibly a paste strop)
- Patience
- and the desire to learn sharpening.
Caring for straight razors
A simple fact is that carbon steel oxidizes quickly when in contact with water — it rusts. The logical consequence is to keep the blade dry. Then it rusts more slowly. If we also preserve it with oil, it won’t rust at all.
Therefore, here are three simple rules after shaving:
- Rinse under running water.
- Dry thoroughly and store dry.
- Oil if it will be stored for more than a week (or in a room with high humidity).
You can find a care set in our shop
Straight Razor Academy
Everything you have seen in pictures and read in text here are excerpts from our Straight Razor Academy. You can register anytime for free and learn everything worth knowing about straight razors in 11 video lessons.
To the Straight Razor Academy