Thread: Hello!

Thanks for the info and offers!
I'm located in MA.

I went to see Howard at The Perfect Edge this morning after my shift. He showed me how to lap my 4/8k, and then gave this singing blade an edge, and a great hone on Shapton stones. He took the time to show me how to use a hand held magnifier and watch our progress as we honed, and let me tell you... the edge was SHARP and polished when he was finished. It took no effort at all to remove hair on a shave test!

This Engels is a mighty fine little blade. I had a fantastic time with Howard -he's a really interesting fellow. I learned so much. We could have hung around shooting the breeze all damned day! Our discussion turned toward razor manufacturers in Worcester, MA, (since I work there and Howard lives in the next town over,) and I told him I had located the original building that J.R. Torrey made his razors in, and shared the address with him. He happened to have a J.R Torrey, (of course,) so I bought it. It's "The Artist" -a smiling blade that is about a 4/8. Very handy blade, it looks like. It was in fine shape, too, with the box. I took it home and honed it, stropped it and it easily removed hair in a shave test. I'm excited to try it out on my face!

I lathered up after a shower when I got home... and took my time to make a first pass with the Engels. I had practiced the sideburns for the past week, and moved on to the rest this time. As you can imagine... I got a few nicks. I'm not discouraged though. It'll get better. I was able to make WTG and ATG passes. Pretty smooth except for the nicks hahaha. I finished with my own recipe of aftershave lotion and was done. I posted about that in the post-shave section if anyone's interested.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/post-...e-cologne.html


The strop I ordered from Star Shaving was here, and it's a dandy. Highly recommended.
It's 3" wide, very fine quality bridle leather with an additional felt strop. It makes stropping with the proper technique easy! No cross passes are necessary -it's wide enough to handle the whole blade. Me likey.

Oh, man, you are so lucky to be able to walk into a place and meet with a professional like that! I bet only about 1% of us can do that. And working in the original Torrey building--that's cool!

I was just thinking yesterday about how useful a 4/8 with a smile would be. You can work into some tight crannies with that!

I'd recommend that you still practice an X-pattern on your strop, even though you don't need to. That way, if you do get a little ding in it in the future, your stropping pattern won't hit the same part of the blade over the same ding on every pass.

From what I've heard and experienced, hollower blades are a little less forgiving of technical lapses. My near-singer is a hungry little thing, much hungrier than my full wedge. You'll learn impeccable technique with that Engels, whether you want to or not! I look forward to hearing how the 4/8 smiler shaves, too.

Thanks for a very happy post, and best wishes to you.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Oh, man, you are so lucky to be able to walk into a place and meet with a professional like that! I bet only about 1% of us can do that. And working in the original Torrey building--that's cool!

*Neither of us work in that building, but it's still standing and has been turned into lofts/condos. J.R. Torrey Co went out of business in 1962, and whoever was running it went into personal finance or something. Still, it was great to meet Howard. As I said, he's just a neat dude.

I was just thinking yesterday about how useful a 4/8 with a smile would be. You can work into some tight crannies with that!

I'd recommend that you still practice an X-pattern on your strop, even though you don't need to. That way, if you do get a little ding in it in the future, your stropping pattern won't hit the same part of the blade over the same ding on every pass.

*I will... I've learned that with the smilers, you sort of HAVE to to get the whole edge in a pass, just like when honing.

From what I've heard and experienced, hollower blades are a little less forgiving of technical lapses. My near-singer is a hungry little thing, much hungrier than my full wedge. You'll learn impeccable technique with that Engels, whether you want to or not! I look forward to hearing how the 4/8 smiler shaves, too.

*Hehe... my luck to start with an unforgiving razor. Well, as you've said, I'll learn good technique whether I want to or not! Trust me... after today's foray... I WANT to do a better job.

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Hi, Scott, and a belated welcome to SRP! Boy, are you one lucky fella to receive a free honing from Lynn himself! Just be sure to send him a 6-pack along w/the razor