Thread: My first straight razor

Any tips with 'what to do' before I use it for the first time please

SUPERB ANTIQUE RO DELORME CUT THROAT RAZOR - CASED | eBay

This is the best plan for the first shave: First straight razor shave - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Relax and enjoy it. You will have many more to try to get a good full shave.

It looks to me like it have some rust/pitting issues by the toe? (the tip of the blade)

The first thing you normally would do is to send it out for honing, but if it's correct that the toe is heavily pitted/rusted some more serious blade/edge work will need to be done.

Taake some better pics of it when you get it, one can't say 100% certain what needs to be done or if it can be done by only seing pics, but it can help you decide what to do with it.

This is one of the reasons why it's recommended to wait a while and learn what to look for before buying razors of eBay and flea markeds.

I hope for your sake that I'm wrong and it's just the pics fooling me, and if not that it is salvageable.

Originally Posted by nickliv

Any tips with 'what to do' before I use it for the first time please

SUPERB ANTIQUE RO DELORME CUT THROAT RAZOR - CASED | eBay

I see you have been pointed to the WiKi. You will find a lot of good information there.
Review the beginner pages. You will need a strop for sure.

For the price I suspect you did well. You should get it honed by someone
that already knows how. You might elect to hand sand the sides of the blade
to remove rust and clean the pits as best you can by hand. No special need
to polish just sand down to 1K with 3M wet-dry paper or equivalent. The goal
is to remove any rust or cruft that might hide bacteria.

Caution: a dull razor is still sharp.

When it is clean and well honed enjoy.

I don't see that the seller honed it himself. If it's your first razor, you don't have the skill to evaluate whether it's sharp enough to shave with, or not.

I would assume that the razor needs to be honed before you use it. There's a "Member Services" section here that will give you a bunch of names.

. Charles

PS -- if you're tempted to hone it yourself, be warned -- "shaving" and "honing" are separate hobbies, and "honing" can get really expensive, and isn't easy to master.

Thanks for the tips. I'm tempted to give it a sharpen and a hone/polish. I've got a number of bench stones and I'm guessing an old leather belt will serve as a strop until a proper one can be sourced.

After all, where better to learn than on a ten quid eBay special. At least it'll be proper steel as opposed to cheese. Sorry, Chinese.

If someone can point me towards a decent honing wiki or thread, that's be great. I'd like to start from scratch, and not bring ant preconceptions over from my experiences of sharpening knives and chisels etc.

Once it cuts blowing feathers in two, then I'll maybe think about shaving with it.

Not that I would advocate learning to hone AND shave at the same time, if you must then have a look at gssixgun's youtube videos - that's where I learned.

Originally Posted by nickliv

After all, where better to learn than on a ten quid eBay special.

Actually there is, most eBay specials needs more than just honing and then we are into a whole different area of the sport

If you never have used or honed a straight you don't know what a shave ready straight should feel like, and therefore don't know what to aim for when you hit the stones.
And if the razor in addition are in need of edge/blade restoration the chances you will do more damage than good is rather high, and you will end up with a less than good experience.

Get it honed by someone who knows what they are doing, that way it will be shave ready, learning to shave with a straight takes time, and it is a steep learning curve. By having a razor that is properly honed at least that factor is eliminated and you are likely to have a better learning experience not having to wonder whether it is your razor is dull or if it is your technique.

Once you have a properly honed razor you can get a barber hone, Norton 4/8, Naniwa 3/8 or similar to keep you razor sharp.
This way you will practice honing technique, you know how the razor should feel and you have a much better starting point when you start honing.

Its here, the edge isn't damaged, it was a bit blunt, its a lot sharper now than it was, and im really enjoying working on it. It takes the hairs off my arm as soon as looking at them, haven't tried it on the chin yet, I doubt it'll be sharp enough yet, but I'm using a couple of moughton stones and an old belt.