Balsa strop paste; what do you use?

Nisse said:
As a newbie I bought a shave ready Gold Dollar from Billy on Ebay, heel and spine were modified, edge was as good as any. I also bought one factory fresh from China but never managed to get it shave ready. So I would recommend vintage Solingen without hone wear or smile to practice on for a newbie.
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Any vintage razor without hone wear is like hens teeth, vintage ie:eek:ld, used many YEARS will have hone wear, dont look into that too much unless the wear is really bad. Most new blades are not shave ready, not Dovo and certainly not GD...
 
2 GD's arrived this morning. Bought the w57 and w59 and will make some time over the weekend to play around with them. The w57 took off a few (not many) arm hairs against the skin, while the w59 did not, so looking forward to trying to get something out of them. I'm also bidding on a vintage Solingen at the minute on ebay
 
Nisse said:
If lucky you will be able to hone without modifying toe-heel-spine. If not be careful to tape and secure blade especially when using power tools to remove steel.
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I was going to try to hone them without modifying the heel and toe initially, and if I can't manage to, I can always modify them later

Edit: I'm not sure that it will be necessary on these 2 models. I know some of them (208 maybe?) are commonly modified to make honing easier
 
On the W59, I felt the heel stabilizer came into contact with the hone, this may just be my way of honing because I COULD avoid it when I took my time and was very deliberate....but imo you should not need to do that, it honed up great and shaved very well...but I'm still gonna take a wee bit off each side.
 
Bob1955 said:
On the W59, I felt the heel stabilizer came into contact with the hone, this may just be my way of honing because I COULD avoid it when I took my time and was very deliberate....but imo you should not need to do that, it honed up great and shaved very well...but I'm still gonna take a wee bit off each side.
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Ps. The 66 needs a bit off too
 
So I had precisely 40 mins this afternoon between work calls so sat down with the w57 and went 1k, 3k, 8k, 12k and bare leather strop.
Slicing arm hairs easily enough and slicing into a cherry tomato with no pressure along the entire length.
Will try a shave tomorrow and see then do the w59 this weekend.
Waiting on the felt arriving for the balsa strops before I use the pastes, which should help too.
 
Just had a shave with both of these this morning.

Prefer the shape of the w59; even though the edge is much shorter, the smile makes it much easier to get into my oddly shaped chin.

The w57 is fine too. I used it with my off hand as the point on the w59 carries a warning in almost every video and review I've come across to date.

I have to say, as a super cheap and cheerful option to practice honing on, these are great. The w59 feels cheap and the scales feel slightly too think for the razor imo, but the w59 is great.

No doubt that anyone with any experience could get a better edge on these than I did in 40 mins apiece, but I'm happy to play around with them and see what I can do.

Still haven't used the balsa on them yet though.

On another note, I'm still at the stage where pretty much every other shave involves me finding some new way to contort my face and pull my skin in various directions for different areas of my face. How long does this learning curve actually last for?

At least my shaves are getting faster as I get more efficient with some of my ‘trouble spots'
 
Took me 30 daily shaves to reach the point of I am nailing this. After 70 shaves I was the master of straight razors. Then got careless and cut myself, lost confidence, had to take a break. Back on track again I managed another 50 shaves before becoming bored, no challenge anymore, time for a break. After accepting the fact that the initial thrill was over I have been using straight razors as I still find this the most rewarding type of shaving: the shave, the faffing about with honing and stropping, the vintage aspect...
 
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If they have fixed the geometry problem it is good news because when properly shave ready the chunky steady easy to control Gold Dollar blade may be a good choice especially for newbies.
 
They certainly pass the ‘tap and wobble' test.
The w59 i went with the rolling x while holding the stone at an angle in my hand. It will def take longer to get used to with regards to honing, but its a nice shave for sure
 
So I bought this on ebay with zero research as to what it was.
Gave it a clean and saw the etching, had a search and saw what it should look like, which is quite nice imo.
Completely blunt so spent 90 mins yesterday to see if it could take an edge and had a great shave with it this morning.
I'm definitely getting more used to getting into the contours of my face.
Will spend some time polishing the razor; the etching's all but gone already so nothing to lose there. I won't be able to get rid of the pitting, but it doesn't bother me tbh. Nice to have something to practice on and have removed the scales so will make some new ones and see how that goes45B24D57-7737-448D-A29B-47FD0A97EA21.png73DDE37C-8B01-4AA7-8A2D-B662F6C69476.png0F604018-2B9D-4B1A-B2A4-7580CE410413.jpeg40CA0E7B-7843-4B35-B70E-EB9E76386CF5.jpeg
 
Finished the strops off today. Will let them dry for 24-48 hours then see how they work
 

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