Three Kings Day came early
I just got back from the barber. I went for a haircut, but decided that while I was there I'd ask the barber, Tommy, a few questions about straight razors. He hasn't shaved the face of a living person in over thirty years and uses disposable blades to trim around the edges now, but he can sure talk. After the haircut he got out and old hone (2"x4.5"), put some lather on it and demonstrated how he hones. He used very small Xs. He wasn't using more than two inches of the length of the hone. He then stropped the razor on a hanging strop. The strop was linen on one side and leather on the other and looked to be the same length as the strop I have from Tony, but again, he only used a small portion of the strop; I'd say no more than ten inches. The razor moved very fast, as fast as Scott in his video, but again, very short strokes. He also said that if you have a rough edge, one trick is to strop on the palm of your hand, on the fleshy part on the bottom along the inside. I then got out my $8 for the haircut (I've tried tipping him in the past and he makes a fuss, so I stopped trying) and he handed me back my razor which I had brought in, plus the hone. So I put my $8 away and gave him $20. So what did he do? He tried to give me $12 change. I told him that it was for the hone, so he gave me back $10 and kept $2 for the hone. I told him that next time I came in I'd buy any old stuff he wasn't going to use. So he turned around, grabbed a razor in a box and handed it to me. The razor is in pretty good shape I think. So for $10 I got a haircut, honing and stropping lesson, barber hone, and razor. Now of course, I'll probably end up buying stuff to lap the hone and clean up the razor, but I think I got a good deal. The razor is a FW Engels Perfect Temper, marked 5/8" S and I would guess is a full hollow. The scales seems slightly out of alignment and there are a couple rust spots, but on the tang and tip and not along the blade proper. The hone is light brown on one side and dark brown on the other, and along one side it looks like it might say AMERICAN.
http://www.unc.edu/~rmburns/razors/hone.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~rmburns/razors/hone2.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~rmburns/razors/razor.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/~rmburns/razors/razor2.jpg
p.s. I also learned that "juvember" is the Lumbee word for slingshot.
