Thread: I Will be Watching!

Just wanted to drop a line and say 'Hi' and that I am looking into straight razor shaving.

I have been wet shaving for almost a year using a DE shaver and some fancy soaps and creams from GFT. I started with a Merkur HD and then bought a Merkur Vision once I decided I was not going to go back to those multi-blade cartridge razors. Although I am far from an expert at wet shaving, with each shave I improve and learn what does and does not work for my face. As I have been learning I have been searching the internet for additional resources and communities that can share their experiences and Straightrazorplace was one that I book marked, but didn't feel the need to join until now.

When my mom was out for a visit a few weeks ago I told her of my affinity for wet shaving and using DE razors and the fact that eventually I wanted to try my hand at shaving with a straight razor..Well, like a loving mother, when she got home she packed up and sent me all of my dad's old straight razors. With much exuberance I went through the package and discovered 5 blades in different states of disrepair. Even though some of the blades may be beyond repair to become serviceable for a shave I was on cloud 9 non the less. You can see all of blades that came in the package here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jpsnuffy/OldShavingStuff

I am now scouring the resources here and in other internet shaving communities for help and advise in getting one of these blades in top shaving form for my first straight razor shave. Right now I have narrowed my choices down to either the Yankee Shaver or the Spike since they appear to have the best looking blades. I have also used Maas on all of the blades since taking the pictures posted on Picasa and some of them look alot better than the pictures suggest.

One question I have after reading The Art of the Straight Razor Shave by Mr. Moss is, should I send one of my razors in to get professionally honed? If I do this I will have at least one razor shave ready and begin to enjoy the benefits and also I will have one razor to have a guideline for sharpness in practicing honing and stropping other blades. I still invite others opinions on my best course of action and I will be watching the threads for more tidbits.

Thanks,

The overwhelming consensus here is to get at least one razors honed by an expert. This makes sure that you start off with a nice, sharp edge, and if you get into honing, you have a baseline from which to judge your own efforts.

From one that is trying to find old family straights... WOW nice collection

You have your fixer upers and some good users. I only have one from the various family members so far and lucky for me it was in great shape. Doing a reg hone rutine got it up and shaving just fine.

Wish you good things on your treasures

Nice family of razors. The only one that i noticed to be beyond salvage(based on the pictures) is the Sears, it seemsto have crack in the blade, noticalbe in the polished picture. I would send the Yankee shaver out for a honing and then start working on the cleaning and polishing of the others.

Originally Posted by syslight

Nice family of razors. The only one that i noticed to be beyond salvage(based on the pictures) is the Sears, it seemsto have crack in the blade, noticalbe in the polished picture. I would send the Yankee shaver out for a honing and then start working on the cleaning and polishing of the others.

Is the best sharpening service through Classic Shaving? or should I send it out to a different service?

Thanks,

Originally Posted by JPSnuffy

Is the best sharpening service through Classic Shaving? or should I send it out to a different service?

Thanks,

Lynn, the man who started this site, does the sharpening for classic shaving!
You might try and PM him directly. His user name is adjustme69.

Originally Posted by JPSnuffy

Is the best sharpening service through Classic Shaving? or should I send it out to a different service?

Thanks,

It's Lynn adjustme69 who does the honing for ClassicShaving, so you can just contact him directly. JoeC is also highly regarded. I got my first razor from JoshEarl, who also does honing. These are the honers I know of.

Edit: Shouldn't get distracted when replying... JMS already answered it

Thanks to you both, I PM'd Lynn and will just wait for his reply.