New bloke... comments on old style shaving
Well hello to you all.
My first post here.... started collecting all the kit a few weeks ago and i would never want to go back to the modern methods.
What a fantastic way to groom yourself... you feel refreshed and ready to start your day. You enjoy your shave rather than find it an annoyance. Ok now to start obsessing on yous...heheh.
Bought everything on ebay... too many razors... bad judgement to start with got me a total wreck of a thing...
now i have 4 out of maybe 7 vintage ones i bought that shave well to excellent.
Two just don't seem to want to sharpen at all... i'm using an old Gem brand hone, from U.S. for dry honing... tried an oilstone too... nope... they scrape but they don't shave too well. One's a narrow old Solingen Extra with in a dull looking leadish steel... it has orange clear lucite scales, supposedly from the time of the Secession... c. 1902-11??
I hone them, try them they're crap and I have to finish off with the Tuckmar Hamburg Ring blade which is my best one... very plain, possibly 1950s, in very good shiny condition... seems like a more modern kind of steel compared to the others.
If the Tuckmar is resting then maybe I use 'The Caley', one of those narrow ones designed for moustaches i think... but it shaves really well... its stamped with the name of a long gone barber at Central Station, Glasgow... lot of hone wear... but ultra sharp... suppose if it was cared for by a barber it should be.
They are all hollow ground razors... got a good old strop too... aged shell horse from a cutler in Liverpool... does the business,...slightly nicked in bits, but looks like it'd last for centuries.
I have a Kropp brand one I managed to revive on the hone... excellent shave now.
Finally there's one called 'The Shavee' got that one keened up nice too...
and discovered what a cracked blade looks like; which is a little tiny discolouration high up on it's point.
Its all learning.
Aslo got a nice badger brush at bargain price... plus some pure glycerine soap which i find to be the best kind i've ever used for shaving.
I want to get a full wedge razor next... they seem hard to find... and hard to recognise from ebay pics sometimes... many sellers don't know how to list them.
I'd also like one of those big damn meat cleaver types...
Well i have said a lot for one post...
so.. hello and glad to be here...
take care all of you
Moriarty
