Thread: From Ebay to first shave...it's been a fun week!

While waiting for my very fist ebay razor purchase to arrive (Vintage PUMA 85 Stright Razor Made in Germany Frcm - eBay (item 250307675113 end time Oct-19-08 08:03:06 PDT)), I found some old straights and an old Franz Swaty stone at my parents house. Unfortunately, all of the straights I found are in need of major repair. So I took the time to practice honing on one of 'em. It was an old Red-Injun with a nick in the middle of the blade, around 1/8 of an inch deep and 1/2 an inch long. I ordered 3M's sandpapers, and got to work. I "bread knifed" the blade, set the bevel, and sharpened it as best as I could. Unfortunately, there's a bow in the spine, and it's going to take some more work to get sharp.

When my ebay Puma razor showed up, I tossed it in my Lyman ammo polisher for five days. BTW, guys, the Lyman Turbo Tumbler Media, Tufnut (pre-treated walnut) will stain the crap out of your scales. I found this out the hard way. They are stained the red color of the walnut media. On the bright side, the blade looks very good. Much better than you would expect for a 27 dollar, ebay Puma to look.

Looking through the radio shack microscope revealed a few chips in the blade, likely bigger than what a normal sharpening job would remove. So I "bread knifed" the blade on 15 micron 3m paper, which was attached to a marble floor tile to make sure the blade ended up completely flat.

I then followed up with setting the bevel on 15 micron paper, then went to 5 micron, 1 micron, then switched to 1 micron diamond paste, .5 micron paste, .25 micron paste, then the unpasted side of the paddle strop. What was interesting, to me at least, was that after the 1 micron 3M paper, the blade would pass the HHT, yet after the .25 micron paste, it would not. It still passed TNT and TPT just fine, but it would no longer cut a hair anywhere along the blade. Yet the blade felt incredibly *sharp*. So you know I just *had* to shave with it, right?

It was my very first straight shave tonight. With a very old, vintage Puma. I had this thing so dull earlier it would have had a hard time spreading butter. And now here I was about to trust this thing to my face and shakey hands.

I whipped up a bowl of TOBS Avocado, and got to work. I did one WTG pass. I was *amazed* at how much closer of a shave I got with this one WTG pass than I normally get with a DE safety razor loaded with a Derby blade. I had zero irritation, and zero blood. Encouraged, I thought I'd give an ATG pass a try. Unfortunately, I learned that, while my blade was sharp, it wasn't sharp enough to go ATG. I'm hoping that a few more passes on the 1.0, .5, and .25 pastes will be enough to put the final touches on the edge.

I'm really tempted to send it off to a honemeister, so I can get a feel for what a *really* sharp, professionally honed blade shaves like. But I gotta get another razor in shaving condition first so I have something to shave with while it's gone... cause I'm hooked!

Anyway, thanks for listening to a newb rant about his first experiences with a straight. It's been a blast, and I look forward to all the coming AD's.

There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment you get from going from bread knife to shaver. It's fairly easy to get a razor sharp enough to shave with but for me the "acid test" is the ATG pass and I'm on my third attempt with my current razor project.

If you lost the HHT with the pastes you may have done too many passes and rounded the bevel enough to dull it slightly. I've never went beyond .5 micron but after a LOT of experimenting I've learned not to go more than 30 laps and I normally stop at 20. If you are using 1 micron paper I'd maybe think about skipping the 1 micron paste and doing 10 laps each with the .5 and .25 and see what happens...you can always go back and add more laps but you can't subtract them if you do too many. Sometimes less is more.

Regardless, you should be proud...well done!

No pics!?!? Shame on you!

Originally Posted by tsenfw

No pics!?!? Shame on you!

You want pictures? There's some after my tale, which is also ebay to first shave in a week. The blade on my M3 Fusioin Power Flux Capacitor Millenium Falcon is really dull, and rather than shell out more dough, only to keep throwing more crap in the trash, I decided to look into straights. As of right now, I'm really glad I did. After buying three eBay specials ($30.00 total including shipping), and doing some tinkering with the two razors that have shown up so far (shown below), I've already been able to rehab both edges, and get what I would consider a pretty good shave out of one of the razors. One of the edges had a nick that was adequately described in the eBay listing, and the other razor seems like it had a little bit of a double bevel by the heel. In addition to the razors, I've spent a whopping $10.00 on supplies to sharpen them (some 600 grit Norton Wetsand, and a three pack of pinnacle honing films from Woodcraft). I've been using a previously untouched marble cutting board (it's just too heavy and bulky to actually use a cutting board) for a surface for both the 600 grit, and the honing film (using the 600 grit like a honing surface with it wetted to the board). For soap, I just slapped some foam from whatever B&BW foaming hand soap just happened to be in the bathroom, did WTG, XTG (including XTG on the upper lip), and a little bit of ATG touchups with only two or three very minor nicks, much more comfortable than when I was just trying a small patch with a dull razor. I have a feeling that my grip and technique are unorthodox, especially for some parts of my face, but I'm not really sure how much that matters if I'm getting a smooth and comfortable shave without a whole lot of effort. BTW; the Wostenholm gave the better shave; after honing, I did a patch with each razor, and decided to use the Wostenholm to finish up. It seems like maybe I didn't go long enough to get rid of the double bevel on the Clover. Also, I didn't shave my chin, because I have some hair there to help my hide one of my many other chins, but there's also a scar there that has been there since I was five. I caught the scar in a safety razor when I was a teenager, left a little flap of skin hanging off the razor. Man was that bloody, but now it doesn't stick out as much, but I'm still nervous about putting a blade over it.

You dont mention that you stropped before you shaved with it. Is this an omission or did you actually forget?

Originally Posted by AusTexShaver

There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment you get from going from bread knife to shaver. It's fairly easy to get a razor sharp enough to shave with but for me the "acid test" is the ATG pass and I'm on my third attempt with my current razor project.

If you lost the HHT with the pastes you may have done too many passes and rounded the bevel enough to dull it slightly. I've never went beyond .5 micron but after a LOT of experimenting I've learned not to go more than 30 laps and I normally stop at 20. If you are using 1 micron paper I'd maybe think about skipping the 1 micron paste and doing 10 laps each with the .5 and .25 and see what happens...you can always go back and add more laps but you can't subtract them if you do too many. Sometimes less is more.

Regardless, you should be proud...well done!

Thanks! Yeah, it really was a sense of accomplishment going from blunt steel instrument to singing, whisker whacking blade. What you said about rounding the edge makes total sense. I think I might be pressing down a bit too hard on the pasted strop, too. Even if I can't get it any sharper than it is, it's still going to be used for my daily shave for first pass, WTG use. The follow up ATG pass with the DE safety razor went *much* more smoothly after the straight. I usually always end up BBS smooth (unless I'm in a hurry), but I did so last night with much less irritation, and in two passes instead of three.

Originally Posted by tsenfw

No pics!?!? Shame on you!

I was so excited about the shave and the sharpening, I totally forgot about pictures! I'll take some today.

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

You dont mention that you stropped before you shaved with it. Is this an omission or did you actually forget?

Not sure if you were asking me or FloorPizza, but I didn't strop after finising with the 0.3 micron film for a couple reasons. I don't have a strop yet, and AFAIK, stropping is more important for edge recovery and scraping away corrosion and crud b4 a shave. That shouldn't be an issue coming of a 0.3 surface. I was able to get a pretty good shave without stropping this time, but I'd imagine that I need to strop before my next shave.

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

Thanks! Yeah, it really was a sense of accomplishment going from blunt steel instrument to singing, whisker whacking blade. What you said about rounding the edge makes total sense. I think I might be pressing down a bit too hard on the pasted strop, too. Even if I can't get it any sharper than it is, it's still going to be used for my daily shave for first pass, WTG use. The follow up ATG pass with the DE safety razor went *much* more smoothly after the straight. I usually always end up BBS smooth (unless I'm in a hurry), but I did so last night with much less irritation, and in two passes instead of three.



I was so excited about the shave and the sharpening, I totally forgot about pictures! I'll take some today.

Based on what I said and your response I want to clarify a little for the sake of other newbies who might not understand what I said.

There is a difference (at least to me) between the edge and the bevel. When sharpening something with a hone, or in your case paper, you get a flat bevel...and in my opinion the ability to create a very thin, very sharp edge. When you sharpen with a flexible surface such as a pasted strop you get a bevel that is shaped like a bullet, or convexed shape...and again in my opinion while this shape is sharp it can never be as thin or as sharp as a flat bevel.

There's also kind of a trade off between the two shapes. Flat and very scary sharp can be uncomfortable and less forgiving of technique errors. That's the main reason most of us do a few laps on a .5 micron pasted strop...to make the blade more comfortable. The trick is to do enough laps on the paste that you are adding to the polish and sharpness but not so many that you are changing the bevel and dulling the edge.

There is no way to show this with text except in the extreme example of V verus U. For a more complete example including pictures you can go to...

Bark River Collectors Association Convex Guide

Originally Posted by AusTexShaver

Based on what I said and your response I want to clarify a little for the sake of other newbies who might not understand what I said.

There is a difference (at least to me) between the edge and the bevel. When sharpening something with a hone, or in your case paper, you get a flat bevel...and in my opinion the ability to create a very thin, very sharp edge. When you sharpen with a flexible surface such as a pasted strop you get a bevel that is shaped like a bullet, or convexed shape...and again in my opinion while this shape is sharp it can never be as thin or as sharp as a flat bevel.

There's also kind of a trade off between the two shapes. Flat and very scary sharp can be uncomfortable and less forgiving of technique errors. That's the main reason most of us do a few laps on a .5 micron pasted strop...to make the blade more comfortable. The trick is to do enough laps on the paste that you are adding to the polish and sharpness but not so many that you are changing the bevel and dulling the edge.

There is no way to show this with text except in the extreme example of V verus U. For a more complete example including pictures you can go to...

Bark River Collectors Association Convex Guide

Oustanding information, thank you! The bullet shaped edge makes sense.

Even though I might not be able to get quite as sharp of an edge with the pasted paddle strop, I think I'll stick with it instead of buying hones for a while; for me, it's much easier to work a blade on the paddle strop than a hone. Not to mention it'll keep SWMBO at bey, too.

I worked that blade for another hour today (more for practice than anything) on the .25 micron paste. Once again it's passing the HHT along the entire length.

Originally Posted by twelvepbrs

Not sure if you were asking me or FloorPizza, but I didn't strop after finising with the 0.3 micron film for a couple reasons. I don't have a strop yet, and AFAIK, stropping is more important for edge recovery and scraping away corrosion and crud b4 a shave. That shouldn't be an issue coming of a 0.3 surface. I was able to get a pretty good shave without stropping this time, but I'd imagine that I need to strop before my next shave.

Stropping is for aligning the two edges of the blade and whilst it will be less noticeable if you hone at such a fine level as the .3mcron you should still always strop on a leather strop before every shave.

I also find it quite therapeutic