Thread: Feeling pretty good. First restore.

Hello shavers!

well I have been shaving with a straight for a little over a month now and I decided to buy a razor at an antique store and restore it. I recently purchased the Dovo Bismarck Black Ebony Solingen and once I restore this one I'll have two razors that are usable. Here is my progress...




I bought this at a local antique store. I couldn't fine any blades from Germany, France, or Japan so I got this Schumate from St. Louis. It had the white plastic scales on when purchased. I took it home and unpinned it and bought wood scales from The Invisible Edge.

After some buffing, repinning, and honing I got this!


I think this looks remarkably better. It's beautiful to me. Though...I have realized I am terrible at honing right now. I need waaaay more practice. I have watched MANY honing vids on Youtube and I just hope I can get honing down before I wasted this blade. I am going to shave test it in a couple days.

If it's not good....I guess back to the honing block...I did the circles with x strokes afterwards and I lost count really. I must have done over a couple hundred circles with 10 light x strokes in between.

Any advice? I would LOVE some.

I joined this forum about a month after I first began trying to learn to hone. All this time later, and while I'm confident about honing, it's far from easy for me. My best advice today: You've watched the videos. Time to get to it. Good luck and be patient. Nice first restore btw!!

Looks pretty good to me Frankthetank86!

I too am learning to hone. Been going pretty good so far, only 1 blade I can NOT get sharp.
Need to get a different stone to set bevel...

What stones are you using? One thing that helped me when I was learning is that I found a couple of videos I liked and honed with them. I watch a step starting at the bevel set and pause the video and repeat what I had just seen. I would then play the video and watch the next set on the next stone and then pause the video and repeat exactly what I had seen. I did this through every step of the progression, one stone at a time even though it was a little repetitive. It helped me a whole lot more than just watching the whole video and then trying to hone. It does take a while but for me it was just kind of an AH-HA moment. You just have to know what to feel for and how the stone communicates with the blade. You will get feedback that will tell you how much pressure you need. Great looking restore btw!

Looking good, Frank.

Looking good. I believe you'll find that Shumate to be as fine shaving a razor as there ever was once you get it honed up right.

You might consider taping the spine. That way you won't damage or or cause excessive wear while you practice honing. And don't think that's just some nothing blade that doesn't matter, Shumates are really good razors.

Don't forget to relax and don't be afraid to step away from it for the day if you find yourself getting frustrated.

I like the restored not polished look myself.

+1 on what maddafinga said, shumate's are excellent, I have 2 myself and 1 in particular is my favorite vintage razor. Looks great, congrats on the first restore.

Nice restoration. Take the honing slowly, I have read that it is better to do 15 minutes a day than sitting there for hours. Follow the great videos that Lynn has on uTube, they helped me lots.

Russell

haha...it will probably help me not get frustrated at it! I will definitely try this. I think I'll try to pick it up every Saturday and try some honing skills.

And for some more info...I tried my first shave with it a little bit ago...it was way too dull. I'm going back to my Dovo Bismarck until I can practice honing more and make it sharper.