Ok...so I'm an idiot.

[unit]

I came to own some fairly rough vintage straights that belonged to a friend's grandfather. They were old and rough.

Someone tried unsuccessfully to repair this one resulting in a frown near the heal.

I have never used a straight before but I'm a pretty good knife sharpener...and a poor listener. So I ignored 99% of what I have read here and set out to do the unthinkable.

I got out my hones and ground the recurve out of the blade and stepped through the progression and finished on my palm (no bare leather strops yet...all mine are loaded with diamonds).

To make matters worse this razor has a decent point on it, but who am I to listen to sound advice from veterans?

I headed to the bathroom and washed and lathered up after a few hot towels. I made my first pass on my right cheek and all seemed good...until I saw my neck bleeding about 6 inches away from where I made my first pass. WTH? I have no idea how that happened, but I kept going.

In the end I have 5 or 6 small nicks on my neck and some very mild burn. But a nice shave with a blade that probably was not honed quite well enough...but it shaved pretty good

I gotta admit it went a lot better than expected. I enjoyed it, but next time I thing I'll slow down a bit