Thread: A few hesitant questions

I'm new to this, but same as most, have spent 20 or 30+ shameful (but necessary) hours reading posts and watching Lynn's youtube videos.

Purchased an old blade from an antique store that had almost no nicks. The King Razor Mfg. (King Special) branding on the scales threw me off, but the blade was a Baurmann and Sohne, which from what I've read, is a respectable steel to start on. Figaro 42, I believe. Sadly, it'd been broken at the bottom three eighths inch of the heel, but otherwise despite some black corrosion, no rust, it was alright.

I purchased a Norton 220/1k and 4k/8k from the same seller on ebay that had been a barber. After the first honing session it was only slightly duller than before. I did mostly all 1k with almost no pressure at all, which I found was a mistake after watching and reading more of Lynn's material, since little to no metal was coming off.

I then decided the stones needed lapping (which they apparently did). After using a sharpie I realized I had an uneven bevel from whoever owned the razor before me. I got out my pocket microscope (used to take the 3rd picture below) and saw the uneven bevel and upon more honing and eventually using the 220 sparinly got the bevel even as seen below.

Bevel progression as honing progressed.
http://i.imgur.com/4z7N3Ot.png


I did a shave test after the 2nd honing (and stropping) and was surprised by how much difference I'd made, but it still wasn't close, was pulling, and didn't pass the HHT, in short, was nowhere near shave ready.

I did another of Lynn's pyramids, with more pressure this time and again was very impressed with how much difference there was. I actually shaved everything, chin, neck, and all on my 2nd shaving (5 days of growth since last Sat when I first tried). Still, it wasn't where it should be, as can be expected since I'm new to this. (3rd honing try, 2nd shaving try). Think nice electric razor closeness, ha, not painful but certainly not DFS.

So I'll continue trying to improve it but in the mean time, I've found one person in Fort Wayne, IN based on his profile. That is Trox, but he's been silent on SRP for about a year now to the day. Is there anybody else on here in Ft Wayne, that could maybe help further cut my learning curve down? (no pun intended)

Last question, I noticed the top 2/3 of my blade is sharper and with magnification is overall much better than the bottom 1/3. Would that be because I have a slight curve (not quite smiling, I'd say, see 2nd picture) or probably because I'm applying too much pressure at the 1k towards the top of the blade. (Water follows the edge well throughout all my circles and X strokes, so I don't know)

Thanks for the help, you guys are great, I'm pretty stoked to be in this. Last night's shave while not perfect felt like a promising first date with straight razor shaving.

Significantly cleaned up, and further cleaned after this was taken.
http://i.imgur.com/4Pu3Nwo.jpg?1 (high res)


Edge closeup (roughly 6-10x magnification)
http://i.imgur.com/bDwcklE.jpg?1 (high res)


Just kidding, real last question as an afterthought. I see Lynn do a TPT often. If I can shave (albeit not perfectly) shouldn't I feel my razor biting into my warm wetted thumb pad, becuase I don't. I'm also not pressing hard. Any articles I failed to find about TPT's? I think I'm just not doing it correctly. Thanks again.