Thread: How to ready an Erik Anton Berg / Eskilstuna / Sweden

Hello, Straight Razor World!

I recently decided to switch to the straight razor and, since I live on an underdeveloped island in the Caribbean, I had a visiting friend bring a razor and a strop from our home town. He brought me a rusty, but functional, Erik Anton Berg, Eskiltuna, Sweden razor and a "Genuine Shell" strop with the silk finish strap on the back. I have a wet stone (not sure of the grade).

My question is, with the limited resources I have listed, can I adequately prep the straight razor for my switch over? I'm going to have to make my shave cream at home and not sure what I'll use for a brush; but I'd LIKE to be able to start sooner than later.

Any and all advice you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nic

Welcome to srp.

From the sound of it, your best bet is to post a picture of it.
The many experienced users on here will have so much more to work with if that is provided.
And while you are at it, do post a pic or two of the hone as well.
Generally speaking, doing the honing by yourself sounds a bit over the top.
Sending it out, if it is at all salvageable, really is the way to go for a good learning experience.

Not quite the answers you were looking for perhaps, but do post some pictures, that will get us started in finding the path forward

You say you're on a "desert island" and can't get hold of a brush or shaving cream, but you do have access to internet and a computer?

I'm not trying to insult you in any way, I just find it a bit amusing

In theory you can maybe find several different stones that can help you make the razor shave, but if you have a postal service why not send it to someone for honing, and maybe they can throw in some cream or soap and a brush in the package when they return it to you?

Ha! Not deserted, just lacking in even normal amenities, let alone old school ones, like strops, brushes, and cream.

I may be able to send it out for honing, but it's insanely expensive to send things out and receive them, here. I uploaded a pic, and tried to include a bit of the greenery in the background.



...and one of the wet stone...



There IS a locally-sold, China-made straight razor available, but I wasn't sure if it'd be worth the Eastern Caribbean Dollars I'd have to spend on it. Thoughts on that?

I would keep my razors far away from the brick on the picture above. The razor is rusty, will need a bevel set before you can even think of sharpening her. Whether you will be able to sharpen her will depend on the depth of the corrosion near the cutting edge. Best really would be to send her out to a honemeister. Or invite me to your Caribbean island.

Invitation stands, Kees! Of course, I can pay for nothing.

Because I haven't taken/had the time to read up on this site, I don't know what needing a "bevel set" means, but I'll look around on straightrazorplace for a while.

Thanks for the advice so far, and feel free to keep it coming!

Setting a bevel means to make the base edge, or the initial sharpening.

This is done by using the lowest grit stone, usually a 1000 grit, from there you will want to work it further up a progression of higher grit stones for further sharpening, for this stage most use stones from 2000 to 8000 grit, and finally polishing using 10000 grit stones and/or higher.

With that said, you don't need to go higher than 8000, you can get a perfectly fine shaving edge on that stage

Do you think if I bought one of the Chinese razors, that I'd have to get it honed, or could I start with stropping?

The general advice is to stay away from the Chinese made razors, I know Gold Dollars can be made to shave desent, but it often requires some skilled work to get them there.

Dang. So I'm kinda up a creek on this, eh. At least until I'm stateside?