So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye!
I don't know why my formatting keeps being removed. I am a firm believer in paragraphs.I just wanted to take a few moments before my account is deleted by those with more access to the SRP servers than I have, to impart some perspective on you boys.Let me start by saying, those who have truly mentored, not just me, but everyone on this site- and that doesn’t mean you have to have “mentor” in your little “Who I am” box; thank you. Glen, you have been objective and informative without being insulting; something JimmyHAD, I fear, will never master. Straight razor shaving is fun and it’s a nice change to take something you have to do and turn it into something you want to do.Regardless of what any of you think, I have every right to post a listing on ebay to offer a service; in fact, I looked into it just to make sure. There are no formal schools, accreditation or licenses required to hone razors- what is required is time, stones and interest or desire. I possess all three.As shooter and mainaman said toward the beginning of this thread, “Pictures don’t really mean all that much, it’s the shave that counts” and the razor I just shaved with (which I honed) did an excellent job. The Dovo I used in the pictures in this post has a warped blade but I was still able to remove the edge and get it to HHT and shave sharp. Glen, just so you know, I had breadknifed the blade in these pictures - it had a slight frown which I believe is a result of the warped blade and why the person I purchased it from sold it in the first place- and it was probably one of you reading this thread. That is unscrupulous if you ask me.Here lies the problem with all of the attitude and judgment you have been passing. Calling my actions “reprehensible, dishonest, unscrupulous” (I have a thesaurus too, Jimmy). You have never shaved with my razor or one that I have honed and you all seem to agree that pictures of a blade can’t determine whether or not it’s going to shave well. So, you are reacting to something you know nothing about simply by assuming that, because I haven’t honed 10,000 razors over the previous ten years I am completely unable to produce and edge that’s shave worthy.Because you disagree with what I have every right to do, many of you feel it is acceptable to send messages to my ebay account asking questions- posing as a person who is interested in what I am offering. Well, I’m not like you and I’m glad that I’m not! Where do you get off disrespecting someone like you have been? What gives you the right to be rude, to make judgments and assumptions, to waste my time and the time of people who are seeking my assistance? If you want to express your negative opinion toward me on SRP, that’s your prerogative because I posted something in a public forum requesting advice from “experts”; although, I haven’t received much advice at all- mostly negativity and criticism. I understand and even expect that there are going to be people out there with the mentality that they have a right to behave as you have in a public forum. Really, those of you who have engaged in this type of behavior should truly be ashamed. You ostracize me because I haven’t been in your club long enough? Because I haven’t posted enough threads saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing! PLEASE HELP!” giving you the opportunity to jump in and pat yourselves on the back by belittling another person and demonstrating just how much you know? I started posting on SRP looking for guidance with something I had never done and instead, you have made the experience such a negative one and I would rather figure this out through trial and error than ask for guidance from you guys. That should tell you something about you.Ash, I would like to thank you for the detailed explanation about sterilization. I was going to say basically the same thing but you beat me to it. I would like to add that doctors wipe your skin with alcohol prior to an injection for two reasons. One, it cleans the skin of oil and dirt on the injection site which is better than pushing foreign matter into your body; however, it does not sterilize the area; that’s why iodine is used during surgical prep. Second, this practice is continued mostly because it has been performed for so long and people expect it. My source for this information is a 65 year old father in law, MD. & PhD. I value his opinion far more than the lay person who believes what he’s been told but hasn’t performed any scientific studies or consulted anyone who has. Now, let’s take a moment and talk about censorship. Some of you already know that my IP address has been blocked, so, in order to access this thread (or SRP at all) I must find an alternate route. I imagine the only reason my account hasn’t been deleted is because the thread would disappear and it’s far more convenient to let the users of SRP believe that I have chosen to run away with my tail tucked between my legs. That’s not the case. I was kicked out because I didn’t roll over like a good little boy. These are the mentors and moderators who have made this decision for you so you’re not exposed to something they don’t feel is safe. At least, that’s my assumption as nobody has bothered to communicate with me about any of this beyond the harassing messages to my ebay account. But hey, it’s your website and you have every right to administer it however you choose- that’s the wonderful thing about this country- you can do (for the most part) whatever you want. Glen, I’m just going to go ahead and assume I’m not welcome at the meeting in October; which is fine. Aside from you, I don’t know that there is going to be anyone at the meeting whom I would like to meet anyway.Just for kicks, I would like to tell you why I decided to set up a listing on ebay to offer a honing service. I only have so many blades and, while I will be acquiring more, I would like to hone my honing skills. I don’t have much desire to shred through razor after razor, grinding off the edge just so I can put another one on it. I too (maxi?) do experiments as I’m honing to see what works for me and what doesn’t. When you don’t have a true mentor standing next to you guiding your hands and technique, this is how you learn something new, or at least how I learn something new. If I spend one to six hours on a blade and am paid less than twenty bucks, does it really seem that I am in it for the money? Of course, you don’t know me, so I strongly suspect you think I’m going to slide a blade 20 times across four or five progressive hones and call it good. Well, you just go ahead and keep thinking that. The rest of you who are terrified that I will ruin the shaving experience of another human, you all have my word that I will do my best to provide the best edge I am capable of and if I can’t achieve what I believe is an acceptable edge, I will notify my customer and refund their money. The people I have communicated with about my service have been made aware of this as well. I almost forgot. “Profeshonaly” is not a word. That’s why it’s underlined when you type it. The spelling you were looking for is “professionally”. You know who you are. Finally, as it has been made nearly impossible for me to access my SRP account, and I am certain it will be completely impossible, if anyone would like to contact me, my user name here is my e-mail address @aol.com. Send me a message if you would like to.
My first "real" attempt at honing- let the criticism fly!
I read it. It says (among other things) that he does not own many razors and wants to hone his honing skills, so he will do so by offering this service on eBay.