I'm now officially an ante-pre-newb!

Hi

As I mentioned to many of those wonderful members on the Chat a few days ago, I was anxiously waiting for my very first straight to arrive. I spent the equivalent of the huge amount of around $USD15 on the one at http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

As most people warned me, it may not be one for using and, having seen it now, I'm guessing it's probably no good for restoration either since the blade is fairly badly pitted. So I thought what the heck! I tidied up some of the staining with 240 grit paper (and will later go through the progression to much finer grits), and started mucking around with the edge just to see if I could hone it and sharpen it to some degree with my limited and inappropriate) equipment.

Please don't flame me because I know this is not the proper way to get a shaving edge, but due to an extended period out of work with health problems, there is no spare money immediately available. Therefore, proper hanging and pasted strops, as well as Norton stones/coticules etc will have to wait. But then again, the "tease" and expectation after the wait will make it even sweeter!

So using what I have at hand, what I did was this:

(a) Arkansas coarse-medium oil stone (with honing oil) - honed out a lot of the nicks from the edge

(b) Arkansas fine oil stone (with honing oil) - tried to smooth the honed edge a bit. I didn't want to take too much metal away, so not all the nicks from the edge were removed, but they were only barely visible to the naked eye. Of course, they still look absolutely horribly huge under a 10X magnification loupe!

(c) Using one of my home-made wood-backed strops (which was made from an old 1.5 inch wide leather belt) with with grey compound rubbed in, I started the initial polishing of the honed bevel. If I had to make a guess, it took around 100-150 laps on each side to start seeing a reasonably noticeable improvement under the 10X loupe.

(d) Using the other home-made wood-backed strop with white compound and very light strokes (again with probably 100-150 laps), it started to look polished at 10X magnification. I can obviously still see "micro-serrations", but was pretty impressed.

(e) Using the last 10 or so inches of the belt (not wood-backed and no compound), it was given about 50 laps each side very very lightly.

Result: I am very very impressed. The blade won't pass the hanging hair test, but it is by far the sharpest thing I have in the house. And there are numerous bald-patches on both arms and legs that I lightly tested at various stages (all against the direction of hair growth). I thought I had some of my knives really really sharp - but this blade is at least orders of magnitude better than them!

I mentioned to few people the other day that since I have a really coarse beard, I gave up shaving 30 years ago because of razor burn. The closest I do is using a #1 attachment in Wahl clippers every fortnight or so. But now I'm getting really excited at the prospect of actually being able to have a face nearly as smooth as(and smelling very similar to) a baby's bum. And I suspect my wife will either be very excited too or have a fatal heart attack.

Thanks for all the help from Lynn (by hosting and contributing to this forum), and from all the people on the web chat a few days ago. You guys really have opened a new horizon for me.

Cheers
omniphile

Welcome aboard! Even though I don't know much about AK stones (I use Norton and/or Japanese water slipstones that cost me like $30 and gave me decent shavers) but if the nicks/pits are still visible under the naked eye (even under magnification) they'll scratch the living s*** out of your face. You need to remove them completely before contemplating shaving with it. When it comes to pasted strops, Tony Miller is the guy to talk to. You may get a good deal on one of his seconds or pointers on how to make your own. Also talk to Glen (FUD) b/c he has a good how-to on making a hanging strop. You can get cheap finishing barber hones from Tilly on http://www.redtrader99.com/. The Lithide hone's supposed to be the one you want. Once you create the best bevel the fine AK stone will give you, the Lithide should be enough to give you that final hanging hair-cutting edge. That way you'll have all of your honing/stropping needs taken care of for less than half the price of a Norton stone. As for razors, you can get some really good deals. I got one that took me under an hour to get shave ready for $11CA shipped (and that included a 15min dip in a mix of bleach/alcohol/water) lol.

You are fortunate you have found this community. Many people more knowledgable than me are always willing to help get you set on the right path. I hope the little bit that I provided also helps. Good luck!

Hold on there fells, you haven't shaved yet. If you're this stoked already I can't wait to see what happens when you've done shaved yer bad self. Thanks for the fine details however. Quite an innovative way to establish a bevel.

X

(b) Arkansas fine oil stone (with honing oil) - tried to smooth the honed edge a bit. I didn't want to take too much metal away, so not all the nicks from the edge were removed, but they were only barely visible to the naked eye. Of course, they still look absolutely horribly huge under a 10X magnification loupe!


X, I would not be encouraging the guy to shave under these circumstances. Omni, if I were you, I'd remove ALL of the nicks from the blade so they aren't visible under the loupe and then you can work on establishing a fine shaving edge.

Hi Firestart and xman

I loved your comments and truly appreciate your humour. I'm not really contemplating shaving with this one until I can afford to get the the proper gear to put a "sharp enough to shave" edge on it. And from my miniscule understanding, this would mean a minimum of it passing the Hanging Hair Test.

Like many people here, it is initially a bit confusing but the more I read, the more things slowly sink in. I'm busily saving and when I can, I suspect my first purchases will be one of Tony's seconds strops, and a pasted paddle. But I'm still like a kid on Christmas morning with this straight arriving yesterday :)

Just for the heck of it, I'll probably hone out the rest of the nicks today and then repolish the bevel. And then, carefully following Bill's advice, I'll advertise it on eBay as an extremely rare razor with carved black ivory scales in absolute mint condition :roflmao

Cheers
omniphile