Thread: Belated intro + market strop and razor

I've just recently taken the plunge into straight razors - restoration curiosity to start with, will see if I'm brave enough to try using the later! I picked up a Bengall off eBay - needs a little work but is in pretty good condition (I posted this in the Bengall Band of Brothers forum entry).

On the weekend I thought I'd see what the local community trash & treasure market had on offer. Surprisingly there was quite a few razors, ranging from the woefully rusted to death to a few in good condition, although some had scale cracks and damage. I found a Taylor Eye Witness The 1000 I really liked so grabbed that for a lot less than eBay razors go for! A little rust to remove to and a rehone and I think that's all it needs.

I also managed to pick up a horse hide barber's strop (Malwa brand "Finish CK18" on the handle), the other side is a different, thinner leather with a "hobnail" square pattern embossed on it. Can't find any information on it, I'm cleaning it and have to restitch it after the handle came off in my hand (the thread was old and perished it seems)... The horsehide side had quite a lot of white/grey waxy stuff on it, but that seems to be cleaning off ok with some gentle stropping with a single-edge razor blade to remove the worst of it and worn out plastic scouring pad which seems to be helping move around some of the wax/oils and restoring the colour again. There are still some dark patches on the surface, seems to be more wax build-up, will switch to something gentler to remove those. I might try glycerine soap if that doesn't work but am trying to avoid that.

I was thinking treating the leather with some old "Boot Goo" I have which is a natural beeswax-based product (although more oils than wax left last time I looked) Boot Goo - Joseph Lyddy , Australia Does this sound ok or is it best to avoid such products on strops? Advice please!

Photos below:


Quiet1

Hi there and welcome to SRP.

I think you have a nice razor and strop there to work with. I would not put anything more on that strop. Most of us just palm dress our strops using the natural oils in our hands. If the strop is really dried out I would add few drops of Neatsfoot oil to the palm of your hand (emphasis on "few drops").

The razor you show in your picture can just be cleaned up with MAAS.

The bigger question is how are you going to get your razors shave ready? Are you planning on sending them out to be honed or aquiring a set of hones? And, if you are planning on honing yourself, do you know what a shave ready razor should feel like? Have you reviewed the Wikiis on your first shave and honing yet? The answers to these questions will govern your success.

Alembic

Thanks Alembic. There seems to be enough grease/wax being liberated from the raised patches that I think if I keep at it with elbow grease I'll get a good surface and the horse hide seems to be fine. The other leather has more issues, fine wrinkles/creases that I will look at afterwords.

I've toyed with getting a Norton 4000/8000 hone and having a go at it myself, but getting one done by a honemeister makes a lot of sense to have a benchmark - and not make a mess of things! I'm not ready to shave with them just yet - I've a new lot of 100 DE blades to work through in my various safety razors for one thing! ;-)

I've watched various videos (the poster I forget but there was a good series of about a dozen on YouTube for starters), read a lot on SRP, B&B and other sites. I've already discovered that what seems sharp in these blades (sharper than any knife or scalpel I've experienced) isn't nearly sharp enough to shave with - fail on hanging hair test. lol Any wonder I'm wary to try using one! I haven't yet decided what I'll do as yet.

I'm not sure we can get MAAS locally (Australia), at least I've not seen it as yet. I've found their website and there are numerous products so I'm going to check out the SRP Wikis, see what's the right stuff and see if there's a local substitute to shave on the high freight costs from overseas. I think I jumped the gun buying a bunch of different grades of wet&dry paper to remove the rust from my razors - they (thankfully) look like they might only need a little work with the fine grade - or just polish as you say. I suspect my Bengall might need a little paper work first though, I'll start fine and see if I need to work down to coarser grades I think (pictures now in my gallery, and in a posting in the Bengall Band of Brothers thread)

There was a collection of rusty razors at the local market - maybe I might just take a punt on those, although they seemed a bit too rusty for the most part to bother with (but not completely shot like one there) they might make good guinea-pig razors for practice work. I have a ridiculously cheap Gold Dollar coming from an eBay seller for that purpose too - I'm expecting that to be a shiny horror show rather than a rusty one!...

quiet1

Hi quiet1 and welcome to SRP.
I think you may be off to a good start with that Bengall - she looks nice.
As you have probably read, it would be a good idea to get the blade honed up so you have a baseline to work from regarding shave ready blades.
johnmrson (who I purchased my first shave ready razor from) is in your town and may hone it for you.
Might I suggest that you consider starting off with just lathering, stropping and shaving for the moment 'cause, I can tell you from my experience, that will be a steep enough learning curve for the first few weeks.
I'm not trying to put you off maintaining your own blades, far from it, as there is nothing more satisfying IME than shaving with a blade that you have honed and achieving good results.
The reason that I suggest waiting a while is so that the learning curve is a little easier.
Regarding the GD, don't be surprised if it becomes a good shaver with a little work. I just rescaled mine and gave it to my son to start on and I know it was shave ready 'cause I shaved with it the day before he came up from Sydney.
You seem to have found the right markets to go to 'cause I haven't found any razors up here at the markets.
If I were you I would wait a while until you have more experience with razors before trying a rusty one.
Keep reading the posts and the WIKI and you'll learn quick enough.
gssixgun is the bloke you want to look at on You Tube regarding honing - he is a jet.
MAAS is available here but is hard to find - Autosol or any other metal polish from Super Cheap works as well and don't forget the old Brasso, it works too.
Another thing to learn early on is that the HHT is a crock IMO - there is only one test of a razors edge and that is the shave test.
There are indicators that the bevel is set (Arm hair test, TNT, TPT) but that is normally off a 1k stone and nowhere near shave ready.
I hope you enjoy the ride and we all wish you many hours of enjoyment in the realm of straight shaving.

Welcome to SRP! And +1 to everything Havachat just mentioned. Wisdom there.

Peace,
Jim

It's that steep learning curve that has my more interested in the restoration side (if not entirely to shave-readiness just yet) than the shaving side ;-P I have a couple of spots that are prone to bleed even with my safety razors (although I've narrowed down my blade selection to those that seem to work for me) - I'd hate to think what I could do with a straight! However, what I will be working on is a left-handed shave with the DE safeties - that fills quite unnatural ATM and would be good to get that sorted safely, to hopefully ease the straight shave learning curve a little (tricky with the different grip, etc I know). I have a history of doing things opposite to most - fly-tying before learning to cast for instance (I still can't cast lol) I did see johnmrson in the Wiki, and have a watch on a eBay honing service (not sure if its the one you mention) who I believe is in the Barossa,

Thanks for your great advice Havachat, I'll search out some MAAS but I know Autosol is easy to get, and I can scrounge some Brasso. I did wonder about the HHT, something that sharp would seem to be ultra fragile too? My Bengall has a nick/chip in the blade edge (small but very obvious, needs a coarser 1k? hone), the Taylor seems to have almost none, but there are a couple of points that feel like are tiny nicks, I'm thinking it shouldn't need much honing to see right, that might be the one I get sorted first, its in very good condition, whereas the Bengall needs repinning (just waiting on the washers to arrive from the USA). The reason I have low expectations for the GD is the price I paid - $4 *including* shipping. I know they have a bad reputation for quality control, but have read too that are made of decent steel and can be made into good shavers. Unlike the Chinese cast steel of the $1 ball-peen hammer I bought for repinning - I've never seen worse craftsmanship (but what do you expect for a buck?). There was a couple of lovely vintage BP hammers at the market - but $15 I couldn't justisfy for tapping a bit of brass rod once in a blue moon. But I digress!

Cheers,
quiet1