Grüß euch, I am a newbie here and to the whole straight razor system. I wanted to give it a try though, namely for all of the reasons you might find for the switch in general. I was going to buy a new blade, but my German girlfriend said her family might have one and, sure enough, they do. It is estimated to come out of the 60s or so, and its from Gracie (with the thing above the e, I dont know how to do it, I speak German not Spanish )

I have little to no information about it and the best I found online was an Ebay auction. (Forgive my ignorance of the official part names) The one side of the blade says "Deutsche Arbeit" in a stepped form with two flowery sort of things next to Deutsche on the right and Arbeit on the left. On the small part of the blade it says "54 10/16 GRACIE D.R.G.M.". On the other side of the small part it says "GRAH & Co, Solingen Wald" and, since I got in D-Land, that means its a real German blade.

My questions are: is it good quality? For any particular reason other than those crafty Germans made it? Would it be a good start blade, or since it is somewhat old, should I get a new blade and just sort of admire this one? Im planning on taking it to a professional (der immer verlässliche Messerschleifer) to get a good beginning hone on it, and then going from there.

Any other personal tips someone might have for a newbie who found a (somewhat) older straight razor and wants to start up?