All I wanted was a straight razor to shave with. Seriously. that's it. I bought a nice restored pipe razor, ordered some soap, and have been poking around researching strop designs so I can make my own. I figured I was good to go.

I haven't even taken delivery of my original purchase yet (trans-atlantic shipping takes too damn long) and my fiance has gifted me with an old levering straight razor that's been in her family forever.

When she gave it to me the scales where trashed and the blade was rusty and corroded, so I figured it would be a nice gesture of appreciation for the gift to restore the razor to working order. After spending a weekend on it I've cleaned up the blade and replaced the handle. It looks nice now and I need to send it off to get it honed. That was my big mistake though because I *really* enjoyed cleaning that old razor up.

So I thought, that was so much fun I should get a nice little supply of crudded up old razors so whenever I want a project I can just walk out to the shop and work on one. I figured it'd be something nice to keep the hands busy come winter. So I did what came naturally, I logged into ebay and started following auctions, bid on a few, won a few. Less than a week later I've got 11 (my god, how did this happen??) razors in various states of decay in transit, and I'm actively following four more auctions hoping to get a "sweet deal" on some unusual pieces.

I'm about to order a set of hones and a brass tumbler, and I'm seriously lamenting my lack of a scroll saw and a belt sander.

I...I think I have ... RAD. Apparently it's contageous because I've got my fiance drooling over a couple of razors I've seen on ebay this week and she's like "yeah, that's gorgeous, you should definitely get that one". Is there a support group? or something? This is crazy.