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.