April 12, 2014 Chicago-land Str8 Rzrs Club Meeting set

[Gonzo4str8rzrs]

Gentlemen,
It is finalized, April 12th will be the date the 2nd meeting of the Chicago-land Str8 Rzrs Club happens. The following topics will be covered and we will start at 10:00 A.M. and go to about 5 PM. The following topics will be touched on:
• Honing
• Restoration disassemble, hand polishing, discuss making scales, pinning, tightening pins, etc.
• Strops and techniques
• Bring soaps, creams, and brushes to try out. Maybe swap some creams or soaps or even brushes
• Types/grinds of straights, so often we get asked what type of grind or what we like in a razor, but if you are new to the world of straights, you don't have any idea. Straight razor composition.

I have the following that say they can make it so far: OldsCool, BLA, Deepweeds, Str8Noob, Utopian, possibly TwistedOak, Tim Booker, and Donald from Chicagoland YMCA. Please Try hard and let me know for sure by email at sigpigonzo@comcast.net by 3/21/2014. Thanks and let’s try and have a great meeting again. Thank you in advance for Utopian’s generosity and knowledge he will share with all of us. I am hoping to meet his friend Randy. They are going to NC meetup later in April so he may not come. Have a great weekend and spring is coming, just a little slower than we want it to. If there is anyone in like the tristate area that would like to come, just let me know. Thanks

Gonzo

[Utopian]

I'll bring pretty much what I brought last time plus other things to accommodate the rest of the list. I'm looking forward to doing this again and I hope a lot of people can make it. For beginners, this is a great opportunity to experience and learn a lot in person rather than just reading about things online.

[deepweeds]

Can't wait! A great chance to learn a lot in a short time, and have fun doing it.

[Gonzo4str8rzrs]

Three weeks to go. Let's get excited!!!

[Gonzo4str8rzrs]

Just had Stirling Soaps donate some samples of soaps to our group. We thank them so much.

[Utopian]

This is just a shameless bump to try to make more people aware of this meet-up now just two short weeks away. It's easier to make plans and scheduling when the time draws near so now is the time to reconsider this.

In addition to the other things I already mentioned I could bring, I will also bring various grits of wet/dry sandpaper, sanding accessories, a Dremel, and band aids! If you have one, please bring a rusted razor. I can bring a few too.

Two things I cannot bring...

1) If someone else has pinning supplies, please bring them as I have not been able to find mine yet. I'll keep looking.

2) Randy. Unfortunately Randy will not be able to make it this time.

This meet-up should be better than the last one!

[Gonzo4str8rzrs]

I have some brass rod and brass washers for pinning. I don't have rusty blades, but I have a few in need of restoration. I also have some wet/dry sand paper, sanding block, file, etc. I have one pair of kevlar gloves to protect my fingers, I have small hands, But I would share if your hand fits. I just received all the soap samples from Stirling. We will have a few to play with. I am very excited, but let down by the not too many people responding back for sure I have a bunch of I don't know's, but would like to know by the weekend April 6th.

[Utopian]

I can provide rusty razors. I just figured people would prefer to work on their own stuff. I don't need the kevlar gloves. I prefer to be careful!

Of course safety is paramount. I want to spend a few minutes going over Dremel safety as that sucker can be very dangerous. We can go over a lot of stuff but won't be able to go in depth due to time limitations. Hopefully we can get a few (metaphorical only) fires started but how much we accomplish on any particular topic will depend on the day's group dynamic. Regardless, it should be an enjoyable day and someone will learn something!

[Gonzo4str8rzrs]

Just received a note from Mike's Natural Soaps that they are sending us samples for us all to experience. So now we will have samples from both Stirling Soaps and Mike Natural soaps. I find this to be amazing and deeply touches me. I will be sending them a heartfelt Thank you card from all of us. I will have those for the meeting so we can all sign them. One more reason to come to the meeting so you can have some samples of some great soaps, learn some honing skills, restoring skills, stropping techniques, and so much more.

[Utopian]

For anyone coming to this, if you have any interest in ever unpinning a razor, please bring $20 with you!

I'm going to show you how easy it is to unpin most razors with a flush-cutter. I found one a few years ago that works very well and I just bought a few more to bring along in case anyone wants one. There is no pressure to buy it but when you see how well it works you are going to want one so I thought I'd make it easy for a few people buy one right away.