Great big thanks to Lynn Abrams; what a great guy.
So I emailed Lynn last week and asked that since I live about 2 hours away from him, if he would be willing to help me out by teaching me how to properly hone a razor, guide me in the right direction on purchasing a set of hones (I just couldn't figure out what I needed or wanted from the many differences out there), and if he would also allow me to "pick his brain" about future restoration of a few old blades I had aquired. He said he would and my cost... my time. So I show up today with my 3 razors and seven oldies but not yet goodies. Lynn patiently teaches me how to strop, the differences in the many types of pastes, what types of strops/materials to use what pastes on, how and when to use a pasted strop, the proper way to hold a straight razor for honing, stropping, shaving, and blade restoration. Some clumbsy dumbass newbie that looks just like me, but couldn't have been me, dropped one of the razors in the sink a couple of days ago. If you haven't done this yet, I do NOT reccomend it; it seems to have a tendency to put a nasty nick inthe blade, but that's better than trying to catch it! So Lynn removes the nick in that blade so it could be honed, after seeing how easy it is for him, he can drop razors all he wants! So we finish honing and paste stropping and then he shows me the propper way to make lather using several different types and a cool trick to make uberlather using only TWO drops of glycerine. Then he runs not one but all seven of my old raggady blades over a combination of buffers and a power hone. He even muted a point on a fourth razor for me. I know I'm missing something along the way here, but for just the "cost" of my time I leave with 4 freshly honed razors (remeber I only showed up with 3) a brand new tub of soap and 7 freshly power honed if needed for corrections and buffed oldies plus I learned how to hone, properly strop and paste/strop, make lather and uber lather, restoration guidance and tricks, how to belt grind blanks, and so much more! This seems like an entire weekend of activity, but only took about 4 1/2 hours. I just made an educated order of my 1st set of hones, lapping stone,and stropping paste; knowing how to actually use them...priceless! Thanks so much to Lynn who if you don't know him is an extremely patient and generous person!
