Thread: Oooo! I wanna try!

Hello all!
Ive been looking into trying a straight for a while. I've found my way to a very good wet shave routine with my run of the mill Mach 3... but I go all out on my prep and have a favored product line with my oil, soap/brush and so on and so forth.... Time for the next step and I cant wait!

But I have patience. I understand what its gonna take and how long to get it right.

So first theing first is I needed a razor. A friend a work stopped by and handed me two freebies.
A cheap looking "Fromm" rasor with replaceable blades... I had no idea they even made something like this.

And a traditional straight. On first look I thoguht it was no good. But after finding this place and doing some looking I find that I may have something rather nice.

So my long and babbling post of an introduction finally comes down to my first two questions.

Is this saveable? (I'm fairly sure it is...)
And where do I send it to get it repaired/restored/honed?
any guestamate on how much I can expect to pay to get it done?

My freebie J.R. Torrey .... please excuse the tape measure.. I needed the prop to get the light to bounce off the blade right to really show the flaws.

thers no pic , hit the "insert image" button at top of chat
. the pic has to be on flickr or some other file host.

there are people who do restores, check the classifieds tab.
if the blade is in good condition, it may just need honing, which you can also find in the classifieds tab up top.

honing isnt too expensive, tops 20 bucks usually.

i cant speak for him but there is a member here offering free honing services, im sure hed be glad to help you out.

the handle looks serviceable. I might think about getting it honed and see if I liked the shave before I invested in a full rebuild. That blade looks like it has a pretty fair amount of hone wear. I would rather put the money and effort into a blade with less wear. It also looks like a smallish blade, a number of people don't like them all that well.

Unless it's an heirloom, I vote honing? -yes and restore? no.

can you see a pic or something? i cant find a link or anything....

I agree completely with Pyment.

To clarify one term, since you're new to this....


He mentioned hone wear.

Hone wear is natural, and unavoidable unless you always hone with tape on the spine, which is a subject of debate. Unless I'm mistaken, the problem he is referring to is uneven hone wear.

As you hone a razor, the spine wears down at the same rate as the edge (in theory) so you always keep the same angle for the blade.

In a perfect world with a perfectly made razor, the side of the spine will slowly flatten out, but it will do it evenly. Your razor however, shows a flattened area on the spine which is narrow at the heal end, wide in the middle, narrow again 3/4 of the way out to the toe end, and very wide at the toe end.

It's generally an indication of a razor that has been honed badly several times, or a razor which is not straight. Both of which are generally not good things.

*i think my browser has gone screwy

what handles look serviceable?honewear, where? i dont see anything?

welcome to srp

yeah, it can probably be made to shave, but i think you'd be better off getting something a bit larger.
as others pointed out the blade is quite worn and there's significant, although even honewear. I think the grind of these is stiffer so all the pitting can be cleaded up, but it'll probably be significant investment.
get a 5/8-6/8 full hollow that is already shave-ready, that way you avoid the gamble of what's going to be after its honed.

Originally Posted by gugi

...there's significant, although even honewear.

Really?

You've got a lot more experience, but when I look at the hone wear on the spine in picture #2, it looks very uneven to me, especially near the toe. Am I not seeing what I think I'm seeing, or would that wear be considered even?

First, welcome to SRP, The scales look like they can be cleaned. I don't do restores so I can't offer any advice there. May I make a suggestion? If you would like to get started I suggest you look in the classifieds for your first razor. The one you have, even if it can be restored, will take some period of time to do so. If you get one from the classifieds you can start much faster, and you wuill be getting a good razor at a great price. Besides a razor you will need a strop. Hanging is best, but a paddle will work too.

Above all, read as much as you can in the forums and the wiki. You shouls also look into getting a copy of Lynn's CD. It contains over 3 hours of great information on most aspects of the straight razor, including shaving with it...

I would agree with taking a look in the classifieds. You can get much more blade for not very much money.

And look! there's some guy named Pyment who just reduced the prices on his listings! what a coincidence!

(Octodude, there are 4 pictures in the 1st post. Maybe refreshing the page or something. Luddite that I am, I have no better advice for you, than these computer things are best approached with healthy trepidation. like a chair and a whip!)