Thread: new guy

Welcome. Looking forward to seeing your razors.
A little advise, plastic bins are not good for storage. Some old razors have celluloid scales and might be rotting, producing acidic gas. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, esp in an environment which is sealed.
Let them breathe!

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you should be able to get a year long rotation happening.

Originally Posted by bouschie

Welcome to the family. Sounds like a great gift. Looking forward to photos when you get a chance.

Where about upstate. I lived in Medusa for 35 years. 30 miles south west of Albany. My son and his wife still live in Colonies.

Grew up in the finger lake region. Live up in Rochester

You're way out there. I'm in Florida now and don't miss the snow. Have a good holiday. Stay safe and well.

Welcome. Many people here with lots of good tips on restoring razors. You'll learn a lot.

In this order:

Get yourself a nice strop if you don't already have one, pick a very dull and smooth razor, watch some vids and learn to strop.

Pick out a couple that are sharp enough to treetop decently already, strop them and teach yourself to shave. Treetopping is when you can pass the razor 1/4" or so ABOVE the skin of your forearm and lop off the tips of at least one or two hairs each pass. You need to know that your razor is at least sharp enough to shave your face before you can evaluate your shaving successes or failures. There are lots of youtubes for this, too, and you can get plenty of advice on the straight razor forums.

Learn to touch up the edge of a formerly sharp razor after it has dulled through normal use. This is the first baby step into honing. Master this first.

Learn to hone from scratch, including edge repair and bevel setting. Learning how to do this will teach you a lot about how a razor actually works and what features and characteristics are necessary for it to shave efficiently.

Learn to make scales and wedges and pin them to razors.Also how to refinish and rejuvenate vintage scales.

Learn to sand and polish, thin and round a spine, fix a heel or stabilizer or shoulder issue, center a blade, and make a shorty out of a razor that would otherwise be a goner.

Take those steps in order if you really want to get good at restoration, and yeah, start with the expendable razors. So last but not least, learn how to identify the more expendable ones to learn on.There are already enough well intentioned restorers out there who make heartbreaking mistakes on razors that in some cases are scarce or in very high demand.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome. My Dad is from Retsof which is across the valley from Geneseo. There was a salt mine there until I think the 90s. Beautiful country up there. I've only been a couple of times but I have a buttload of cousins up that way and around Buffalo and Syracuse. I'm a minor fan of The Crunch which is a farm team of the Tampa Bay Lightning (of whom I'm MAJOR fan.) Perhaps you've heard of them.. Go Bolts!
Ahem!... Anyway, I'm thrilled for you for your collection. That is an endowment that most here would trade their eye teeth for. Congratulations! I hope you plan to use some of them. Lots of good advice already on that. My suggestion, if you do, would be to pick a good one, possibly with some advisement from some knowledgeable folk here and send it off to be cleaned up and honed properly. That will give you a baseline point of reference for the future. Damn! I'm excited for you. Looking forward to seeing some pics.
Edit: Just for comparison. I have one straight that was my Dad's, (possibly my grandfather's) a few hones and a shaving mug. These heirlooms are some of my most prized possessions, of greater value to me than razors I spent hundreds of dollars on. Treasure these gifts and do right by them.

Thank you guy. Definitely want to learn. Where do you think I should get stones and straps. The stones I do have were handed down and I have no idea the grit on them. How does one post pics on for people to see?

As far as buying stones and learning to hone... Learn to shave and strop first. After the first year of shaving then start to learn to hone. A strop is very important and if you check out our vendors corner in the same place you find buy and sell items, you will find a strop maker. But go very low cost as you will damage it being new. A beginners strop is recommended. Not one that cost 100+ bucks.

As far as a razor, pick a basic razor out of your collection. Or maybe 3. Contact one of the guys here that fix razors and see what his opinion is on the ones you picked. From there send them to that person for a basic cleaning and honing. You should always learn to shave on a pro honed razor. Not a half-assed sharp razor. 2 razors are best to learn on so you can send one off for honing and still be able to shave and keep learning.

This is a fun hobby but starting with the basics first will help you in the long run.

Im on the road right now so someone else will be along and help you with posting pics. Its not hard.