First and foremost, I have got to thank everybody here.

Not exactly my first shave with a straight -- I'd gotten one of those cheapo disposable blade straights (one of the ones with a full-length blade), and I worked my way though the box of blades it came with before I got the real deal.

Today I successfully honed and stropped my very first usable razor. The honing wasn't easy, since as an utter noob on the restoration I'd managed to hit the edge with a buffing pad spinning the wrong direction. It didn't cause huge damage but it took a couple of 0.1mm bites out.

I've only got a Norton 4k/8k, so getting the bevel reset ... took... a... lot... of... time.

But I did it. And the shave felt great! I'd guess I'm only about %75 of the way to what most folks would consider an ideal hone, but it was good enough to get the hair off without that dull-razor pull or any nicks. I couldn't have done this without the incredible information resources here. Watching the youtube video of Lynn working with stones, watching Undream's restoration videos, reading the wikis and the posts -- all of it -- was absolutely essential. Thank you everybody!

As soon as the cash reserves replenish a bit after my blade spree, I'll get a couple professionally honed so I can see just how badly I'm doing at this.

At the moment I'm feeling awful good about my hard work!