Thread: Butcher's First shave

Well, I went and asked in the honing forums whether or not to convex my edges. I am a butcher and I use a convex edge on all of my work knives. After seeing the responses I decided to go with a traditional edge(no convex) on my very old King Liberty Bell and my W. Bingham razors. I probably did not sharpen them the way that is recommended, so I won't post my process. All I know is that they came in dull and now they pass the every recommended test.

I was given a Wedgwood scuttle by my father, he used it when he used to wet shave. I lathered up the soap and applied it to my face with a boar hair brush. I stretched the skin on my cheek and made the first stroke. It was clean all the way through, and I did not have a single cut. I decided if I was going to go through with this whole straight shaving thing, I'd go balls to the wall, and do my entire beard, neck and all. Thankfully the only cuts I received were from the razor running over in-grown hairs from my previous shave.

All in all, I have fallen in love with straight razor shaving. It is a slower process, but the fact that it is a closer shave and the fact that I feel "one" with an instrument I have hand sharpened, makes it that much more appealing than the 83 1/2 bladed razors you see on the market today.

Congrats on the shave.

Don't be afraid to post your honing process just because it's different. If the method works, it works. So long as you don't grind away half the blade before getting it sharp, it has to have some value.

I'd wager 90+% of us reading this post thought it was going to be about a Wade and Butcher straight razor!

Congrats, and welcome! You know better than most the importance of a well-made and maintained cutting instrument, pretty soon, you'll be doling out shaving advice like a pro

Congrats! Sounds like you're doing great and welcome.

Jordan

Originally Posted by paulo

I'd wager 90+% of us reading this post thought it was going to be about a Wade and Butcher straight razor!

I will go on a limb as say 99% thought it was about a Wade and Butcher . Congrats on your shave wish you the best on the many more to come.

Nice work! Your honing process has got me curious

James.

So where's the W&B Meatchopper?

Originally Posted by HenrikWL

Congrats on the shave.

Don't be afraid to post your honing process just because it's different. If the method works, it works. So long as you don't grind away half the blade before getting it sharp, it has to have some value.

From seeing the videos from Lynn I was doing it wrong.

I took a Norton medium Crystolon stone to the razor first, because it was extremely dull. I then went to a King 800, then a Norton Fine India. With each of the stones I established a burr, then eliminated it with a hard plastic art eraser. I made my way up to a natural hard translucent Arkansas stone. From there I took the razor to a pasted strop. The strop was pasted with White rouge. Afterwards I took the razor to a Belgian Shell strop(used antique acquired from my father in-law). First on the canvas side, then the leather, 40 strokes on each piece. After that I tried all the tests including the thumb nail test and the hair "popping" test.

I used Colgate shaving soap with a dabble of HeadSlick (from HeadBlade), to aid with lubrication. I shaved all of my beard in my first go 'round and it felt great. I will never shave with a "159' bladed razor blade again. I love my Straights.

Originally Posted by BigMallard

From seeing the videos from Lynn I was doing it wrong.

I took a Norton medium Crystolon stone to the razor first, because it was extremely dull. I then went to a King 800, then a Norton Fine India. With each of the stones I established a burr, then eliminated it with a hard plastic art eraser. I made my way up to a natural hard translucent Arkansas stone. From there I took the razor to a pasted strop. The strop was pasted with White rouge. Afterwards I took the razor to a Belgian Shell strop(used antique acquired from my father in-law). First on the canvas side, then the leather, 40 strokes on each piece. After that I tried all the tests including the thumb nail test and the hair "popping" test.

I used Colgate shaving soap with a dabble of HeadSlick (from HeadBlade), to aid with lubrication. I shaved all of my beard in my first go 'round and it felt great. I will never shave with a "159' bladed razor blade again. I love my Straights.

I don't think that the forming of a burr is wrong per se, so long as you manage to remove it and produce a sharp edge as the end result. Something you obviously did. From a perfectionist standpoint, the forming and subsequent removal of a burr does in fact mean that metal is wasted and the life span of the razor is shortened, but it is up to the owner of the razor to decide whether this is ok.

Lynn is a professional razor honer. It's much more important for him (and other professional honers) to minimize metal waste, as he hones razors for other people.