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.