Arrowhead said:Dear Sir, your avatar is disgraceful, and in the finest traditions of TSR. Well done.
I did make it to the end of your post, eventually. In general I'm in agreement with Mikael, which is usually the case. The strop is almost certainly junk, and if the razor is capable of taking a decent edge it would be a surprise. Most likely it will have been tempered badly and inaccurately ground, both of which will make it frustrating even for honing practice. I suggest you procure a good, reliable razor to get things started, and revisit that one at a later date when you feel competent to assess it.
There are two ways to go with this, new or vintage. Leaving the custom makers aside, the only reputable names for modern razors are Dovo, Thiers Issard and Revisor. A couple of respected British companies are selling rebranded straights which are superficially attractive, but best avoided. I won't name them, but Neil will! A read of this post will sound the appropriate alarm bells. You're looking at about £60 for an entry level new razor, and it may well need honing: it depends where you get it from.
Vintage razors. This would be my suggestion, though it can be a minefield. Far and away the easiest way to get a good one is to buy it from Neil. His bargains are just that because you can rest assured that they will shave properly, and a price of £25 - £35 is more than fair. Just because there's nothing on the bargains page at any given time doesn't necessarily mean that he can't help out, so it would be a good plan to PM him. As Mikael will tell you, it's possible to spend a lot of money on a vintage blade, but that's if you're chasing the very best and rarest ever made. A budget Kropp, Ern or whatever will shave very well indeed, and will leave some money for buying a strop.
Finally, a word on the HHT. This is coming up with increasing frequency, and for some reason newcomers seem to see it as some kind of absolute. It's nothing of the sort. A razor which cuts one hair may very well fail with another, and results vary with humidity. It is useful for honers as a way of assessing progress, but it takes some practice to get meaningful information from the results, and it tells you nothing about whether shaving will be comfortable. For a while I was using a borrowed Spyderco UF stone, which produced very impressive HHT results, and the edges certainly shaved easily enough, but were harsh and not very pleasant to use. One hears stories of people getting HHT passes from 600 grit diamond plates, and that's one helluva coarse finish. Nowadays I'm aiming for a good HHT pass, but final assessment of the edge is done by test shaving. For more on this, see this article.
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