Hi all - my first post here...
I've been wet shaving for a good while with DEs and SEs, and I also have my grandfather's collection of seven straights - I used them a while ago, and some of them were still good to shave, but once they lost their edges I put them away. But I want to get them back into use now, and I posted a call for help over on another forum - and I got some great advice. I also got offers to hone for me - I have two razors away in Canada now getting expert attention (I know, it's a long way from where I live, but air mail was surprisingly cheap).
I've used waterstones for years to keep my tools and knives sharp, and after following advice and reading around a few forums, I now have Naniwa 1k and 3/8k stones, a couple of Welsh slates (including a purple LM), a balsa paddle loaded with chromium oxide, and a couple of leather strops.
I've made two attempts at honing a razor - the first was acceptable, but the second was a lot better. For the second, I finished on the purple slate, starting with slurry and slowly diluting to just water - then stropped and shaved and got a pretty good 2-pass shave. I haven't tried the crox yet - I only just pasted it today, so it will have to wait for next time.
So, I have seven old straights, mostly Sheffield, what I think is a decent set of honing stones, and strops. One of my razors looks badly pitted, and I suspect it's a lost cause, but I should have six that are in good usable condition - and I'll shortly have a couple of expertly-honed blades to compare my efforts against.
I've read a lot of the stuff on this site, and I've spent quite a bit of time watching Lynn's videos - as well as obviously knowing his stuff, he's great at presentation and explanation. Over the coming months I'm going to be on a bit of a honing exploration.
Anyway, that's my intro post - I can usually waffle far more than this, but I've tried to take it easy on you for starters ;)
Alan
