My first shave...I think.
So, I'm a pastor in the midst of moving to a new church and yesterday our weather was so bad we had to cancel services. What's a guy to do with a WHOLE Sunday and no internet? (don't have the net setup there b/c we still have it at the old place) AND, no way to get back to the old house with plenty of chores, honey do's, and internet?
Well, a wiser man might have spent his time in more sanctimonious endeavors. Me, I pulled out my e-bay toys. I've got two vintage family heirlooms I left in boxes. I'm sending them off to Utopian to get honed. But I had an e-bay razor, an e-bay strop find, and an e-bay hone just sitting there with nothing to do all day long!
The razor was supposed to be a Black Diamond GH Pumacher, but turned out to be a Genco from Geneva NY USA. It was a victim of surface rust, but I had sand paper and other toys handy. So I sanded it, and sanded it, and examined the jagged edge, and put it on the hone (I've watched more honing vid's on youtube thanks to the guys here than I probably should have). The e-bay hone is hard and fine and wasn't cutting mustard, so I pulled out my generic rough/fine knife sharpening hone. After around 400 circles on the hone (I think...I lost count, but hey...I had all day) the edge was clean and smooth and looked good. It felt sharp TPT, but wouldn't shave arm hair. So I put it on the e-bay hone (which I lapped btw) and about 90 circles and some cross strokes later it shaved the back of my hand.
I felt good. I'd never honed a razor before, but this was looking good. I'd treated the old e-bay strop with tons of Neatsfoot oil (only because it was very dry) and burnished it with a root beer bottle. So then I took the razor to it, very carefully and very intentionally (got some questions here I'll post elsewhere). Things were progressing very well.
By evening I'd played with my kids, watched some old movies, talked with my wife, and was back to boredom...but my cheeks were hairy and this once grungy dirty old razor was whispering in my ear. I had to. I couldn't help it. It'd be wrong not to wouldn't it?
I gave my face a hot bath, lathered up the soap and brush my wife had given me, and touched the razor to my cheek. It pulled. It wasn't quite right. I pulled the spine further from my cheek bone, and it glided through the hair. It was imperfect, some pulling and tugging, but it was glorious! The right cheek cleaned off pretty well, though there were some tricky grabs around my goatee. The left side, not so much. More tugging and pulling. Some hairs left behind. I'd shaved my neck AKA problem area with my old safety razor, so there was no temptation there...though I doubt there would have been, even though there were no nicks or bleeds on the cheeks.
I know I'm nuts for taking on the honing of my first razor before shaving with a straight razor, and then using that same razor to shave with. But I challenge any man here in the same circumstances to do different! :D
