Thread: How unrealistic would it be to try and restore this razor by myself?

I did the zoom session with Glen and learned a lot, it's still going to be a hot minute till I have the opportunity to really practice, given that my razor is professionally honed now and Paul's still hasn't arrived, not to mention the fact that I still need to learn how to properly shave with a straight to begin with, I have some razors to practice on though and am going to give it a shot in some other threads. Thanks guys!

I sent out a letter to Ontario the same day which took 3 weeks for delivery. There shouldn't be a big delay going through customs but it is a box inside a large envelope so it's hard to say. I checked the tracking and it's in parcel purgatory in some unspecified place and status. Sorry for the delays. I hate waiting for packages to arrive myself. That's the new normal I guess.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I sent out a letter to Ontario the same day which took 3 weeks for delivery. There shouldn't be a big delay going through customs but it is a box inside a large envelope so it's hard to say. I checked the tracking and it's in parcel purgatory in some unspecified place and status. Sorry for the delays. I hate waiting for packages to arrive myself. That's the new normal I guess.

Yeah, I made a bunch of orders around Christmas time that would normally take about 1-2 weeks to get here and most of them took at least double that this year. Way she goes.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

I sent out a letter to Ontario the same day which took 3 weeks for delivery. There shouldn't be a big delay going through customs but it is a box inside a large envelope so it's hard to say. I checked the tracking and it's in parcel purgatory in some unspecified place and status. Sorry for the delays. I hate waiting for packages to arrive myself. That's the new normal I guess.

Here it is! Looks extremely finely honed, should be great to practice on even compared to my now professionally honed dovo, almost zero spine wear, I'm impressed frankly that you even managed to find one in this good shape to begin with.

Well, 31 days is how long it takes to get a package from Florida to Winnipeg. Give that a quick strop on smooth leather because of the time it took but leave it at that for starters. Hope it shaves well for you.

I am sooo confused here...
So Glen did a zoom with you and now your razor is professionally honed.
Paul sent you a shaver he honed for you. Now you going to 'practice on it'?

Is it me?

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I am sooo confused here...
So Glen did a zoom with you and now your razor is professionally honed.
Paul sent you a shaver he honed for you. Now you going to 'practice on it'?

Is it me?

Understandable, lol. Basically I assumed there was no one in my whole city willing to do it until I managed to suddenly track someone down after years of searching, so I don't need to try and restore the dovo by myself anymore.

But now I have a set of sharpening stones and an interest in sharpening so I'm just learning to sharpen correctly.

There is some missing information there. I sent him that one to practice with because it is one that removed stumbling blocks. I honed up to give him the idea of what it can shave like....
Can't speak to the rest of it.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

There is some missing information there. I sent him that one to practice with because it is one that removed stumbling blocks. I honed up to give him the idea of what it can shave like....
Can't speak to the rest of it.

Pretty much yeah. I have my Dovo razor and a bunch of brutal vintage razors, at the time my Dovo razor was pretty badly warped and all of the vintage razors are obscenely poorly honed, so it's very difficult to learn how to hone without a good frame of reference. Even though my Dovo unexpectedly is in good shape now, it would probably still be weird to learn on because the guy who did it was forced to do some extra techniques like rolling x strokes and grinding of the stabilizer to get it in reasonable shape.

Really the fact that I found someone was pretty shocking though, I had been looking for literally years and live down the street from the most well known sharpener in my city, so if he couldn't do it there was good reason to believe he should know someone who does. The guy I eventually found had no advertising, not even a classified ad, and had never posted once on any local or more general forum, he was essentially impossible to track down without randomly stumbling into him through a local who happened to have a knife made by him.

Still Paul's gift is much appreciated and now I am committed to learning this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He probably doesn't need or even want the publicity. Maybe has more.than he can do under the radar. Good that you found someone. Still, unless you want to be dependent on someone else it is good to be able to take care of your own honing needs. I believe in self sufficiency. Besides it is satisfying to make your way through the process by yourself. Learning to hone is a process and, I think, makes you more connected to the.process as a whole