Thread: First Razor - Crown

OK now the little spam-induced detour is gone so back on topic.
As I said you need low and medium grit hones for this one, so hopefully you can find a barber with these and willing to do it.
My understanding is that when straight shaving was common barbers would do 'maintenance' on their razors which can really be done quickly and practically indefinitely. The edge restoration is different, and I personally like to make a distinction between honing a say brand new razor as Lynn would explain in his DVD and a razor in which the edge is chipped and oxidized.
Of course, I may be wrong on the history bits, but as far as what's involved in honing your razor I'm pretty sure I've got it right, as I've been doing these for some time now.
You may want to look in the restoration articles in the wiki. Since you have the time, you may want to get the razor nice and shiny.

I don't think that there will be too much restoration involved. There was rust on the hollowed part of the blade but not on the edge. It won't cut hair very easily but it is definitely way sharper than any knives I have even when they've just been sharpened. I also can't see any chips at all. Maybe that's still considered restoration, but I just thought that it needed a regular honing. This is the other reason I wanted to find someone local... I don't know anyone (other than the uncle) that uses a straight razor and I know you guys can't give an extremely accurate assesment of what it needs just from pictures. Someone that could look at it could easily I assume.

Ok, on second thought...

It's apparent that this is going to require more of a commitment than I would've liked just to find out if this will be something I enjoy. So, I've decided:

A. If I can't find someone local to hone this razor I will be sending it out.
B. I might as well do a complete restoration while picking up all the other items I'm going to need eventually.
C. Even if I spend as much on this razor as I would've on a new one I will like it more because it is old and because it will be more "mine"..
D. Even if I don't like shaving with a straight... I'm sure to enjoy the restoration project.

Ok, with that said here's the plan. I've removed the scales and sanded most of the discoloration off with 320 grit sandpaper. Unfortunately, I broke the other scale in the process so now it will be slightly trickier to trace onto new scale material but I was planning to replace them anyway. I will move up to 400 grit when I get some and it's ready (Still a little more to do with the 320. I've been working on it a few minutes at a time when I'm sick of reading for the moment) then move onto using the brass tumbler method since my dad reloads and has one and I'll be at his house next weekend reloading some .38 and .357 anyway and can check out what polish he uses with it. I'll probably make scales from wood but I haven't decided what kind yet. What do you guys think of teak? Too soft? I haven't decided between peened pins or the microfasteners yet. I like the look of the pins better (the micros seem to stick out further in the pictures I've seen), but the micros seem much easier.

I also have my first tip for the forum... Any guitar players out there know about the extra string that you cut off when you put new strings on the guitar, well the lower strings that are brass wound work great for cleaning the gunk out of the hole in the tang. I just took a piece of an A string and used it like a small, flexible, file. Of course a pipecleaner would be great too, but I didn't have any.

D@#$, my fiance is going to kill me... I can hear it already... WHY do you need ANOTHER hobby???

There ya go. A whole bunch of fun ahead of you

Don't forget to make something for the fiance too. That way she can see your new hobby as a good thing

looks like a good project razor restore the blade make some custom scales and post that bad boy in sotd

Yeah, I'm thinking it should be fun... It will probably take me awhile though as I'm short on finances right now and will need to borrow some of the tools I'll need. I do have everything I need tool-wise available though but I don't have access to a bandsaw which I'm sure would save me some time.

"Don't forget to make something for the fiance too. That way she can see your new hobby as a good thing."

Funny that I just noticed in my email the notification that there were replies. I was just working on convincing her that it was a good thing that I took it apart and now needed scales etc. I purposely made sure to read some of the stories of women using them earlier and was telling her some stories... Mostly the one of the guy (sorry can't remember who - too lazy right now to look it up... It's beer time) who caught his wife (or girlfriend) using his razors.

well, I guess my first post didnt go through. I am from chandler. Unfortunatly I am a noob as well. I did a search and accidentally searched fro barbers who do straight razor shaves. There are some in the valley. I just didnt double check to see if thats what the search was really for(never contacted any of them) Where did you pick up the razor?

Originally Posted by darobison

Ok, on second thought...

It's apparent that this is going to require more of a commitment than I would've liked just to find out if this will be something I enjoy. So, I've decided:

A. If I can't find someone local to hone this razor I will be sending it out.
B. I might as well do a complete restoration while picking up all the other items I'm going to need eventually.
C. Even if I spend as much on this razor as I would've on a new one I will like it more because it is old and because it will be more "mine"..
D. Even if I don't like shaving with a straight... I'm sure to enjoy the restoration project.

Ok, with that said here's the plan. I've removed the scales and sanded most of the discoloration off with 320 grit sandpaper. Unfortunately, I broke the other scale in the process so now it will be slightly trickier to trace onto new scale material but I was planning to replace them anyway. I will move up to 400 grit when I get some and it's ready (Still a little more to do with the 320. I've been working on it a few minutes at a time when I'm sick of reading for the moment) then move onto using the brass tumbler method since my dad reloads and has one and I'll be at his house next weekend reloading some .38 and .357 anyway and can check out what polish he uses with it. I'll probably make scales from wood but I haven't decided what kind yet. What do you guys think of teak? Too soft? I haven't decided between peened pins or the microfasteners yet. I like the look of the pins better (the micros seem to stick out further in the pictures I've seen), but the micros seem much easier.

I also have my first tip for the forum... Any guitar players out there know about the extra string that you cut off when you put new strings on the guitar, well the lower strings that are brass wound work great for cleaning the gunk out of the hole in the tang. I just took a piece of an A string and used it like a small, flexible, file. Of course a pipecleaner would be great too, but I didn't have any.

D@#$, my fiance is going to kill me... I can hear it already... WHY do you need ANOTHER hobby???

Sounds like a great plan!!!

I'm sure You will have loads of fun restoring this baby to shavereadyness...

While you are restoring your razor and you dont need a strop yet you could also consider a Dovo shavette to learn to shave with a straight.

They are pretty inexpansive, can give a very close shave but are pretty unforgiving..(You will nick yourself guaranteed the first couple of shaves) But you wont need to strop yet and you will have a razor that is guaranteed to be sharp.

I started with the shavette (because I didnt know if I liked straight shaving in the first place) and found that it made my transistion to a real straight very easy.. I still use my shavette when the real straight needs a hone. I'm still not very good at honing so If I start a shave and decide its not sharp enough I just pickup the shavette..

Well whatever you do... have fun!!

Maarten

Howdy!
I'm in the East Valley. There are quite a few people in the area, and while I'm willing to help you learn to hone, I'd like to do it at a meeting with other members. It's a little time consuming, and just last week I went through the whole process with two different people.

Here's the thread for the meet up;
http://straightrazorpalace.com/get-t...a-meeting.html

Post in there and keep an eye on the thread. Hopefully we can get something together in the next month or 2.

"Where did you pick up the razor?"

Psicko, if I tell you that I'll ruin my master plan of going back and getting more of them to restore... I figure once I fix up one I'll want to do a bunch. But I'm a nice guy and only half-kidding. I got them from the antique show at the state fairgrounds. I was actually there for the gun show and by chance my dad and I decided to stop at the antique show on the way out since it was free. At first I was just walking around looking at stuff... Then I saw a straight (I had been thinking about them already since I saw two at the gunshow but they were pretty expensive). My dad thought I had lost it, as everytime he saw me after that I was at another booth looking at more razors. I actually even had to borrow some cash from him because I had only brought enough to get into the gunshow and buy a soda or two if I got thirsty.

BigBubba, thanks, I didn't know something like this existed. I'll check it out. Hopefully there's some meetings over on my side of town as well though. I rarely get over to the east side (I'm in Peoria).

Psicko, if you haven't already you should probably check it out as well.

Edit: Forgot to mention that there was one booth there where the guy only had really nice razors. He said he only gets ones that will sell for between $175 and $1,000. I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at these ones but I did notice a beautiful Winchester that as a gun nut I'd love to have one day.