Thank you Cam, John.

The owner was expecting the mammoth ivory. The scrim was lagniappe. The owner had done most of the work on the blade. I just added a little polish and patina. The wedge is re-constituted amber. The shave was a partially unexpected treat for both of us.

I am not a big proponent of so many of this and so many of that. I prefer to let the blade tell me, or in some cases the material. I do have a method of stropping on cloth that produces a very special edge on most full hollows within 40-50 fast laps, but rarely try it on beefier blades. It worked great on this one. I have a number of leather, cloth, and pasted strops at my bench, and another set hanging on the inside of the bathroom door. I typically use 20 or fewer laps at a time, and test. Making scales, I never use precut patterns, but lay each blade on a piece of paper and draw a pattern around it. I do make sure the outer perimeter matches, but free hand the shape, with them held together, a little at a time, using finer methods of material removal as I go.

I noticed before honing that the blade seemed a little thin near the center section. Honing the razor, my test methods indicated the edge was a too thin in that area. I honed beyond the initial bevel set on 1k waterstone, until I could tell that the center section was better supported before progressing.

This was probably not the best thread to show off the razor, but seemed appropriate at the time.
Thanks again for you comments and interest,
Al