Thread: Greetings from Indiana

Hello gentlemen,

My name is Michael, and I am looking forward to beginning my journey into the world of straight razors. I have a Red Imp 132 that my grandfather owned, (I feel like I am restarting a legacy of his, and like I have a bit of him with me) it is in pretty fair condition, it just needs a bit of TLC. I have finished sanding away the corrosion and pitting and am beginning to work on removing scratches and start polishing. (this may need to go in a different forum/ is already answered) As I near the end end of the aesthetic portion of the restoration, I've found i desperately need help on how to hone/sharpen the razor. I would love to fully restore it myself, so any help, information or a point in the direction of the information would be greatly appreciated. However if you think it too difficult for a complete beginner to hone such a razor any info on good honing services would be appreciated as well.

Sorry for the long intro; thank you for taking the time to read, and for any help given. Looking forward to learning everything I can, and maybe someday passing this knowledge on to my son.

Regards,
Michael Gardner

Welcome to the forum Michael. As far as resto of your razor goes, it depends on your level of manual skill and what equipment you are either willing to buy or have already. Do you want to buy a full set of hones just to restore the one razor? Or do you think you will do more in future? If you only want to do the one, I would suggest finding the best hone'meister' in your area (or outside of it if necessary) and sending it off for honing. Hones, at least a full compliment of quality hones, run into some big dollars. You have to choose how you want to proceed there first, and yes, then you will have to learn how to hone, and even if you get that right pretty quickly, providing you don't have one of those razors that are on the finicky side of honing, you'll never really know if I could be better, having nothing to base the shave experience on.

In short, I recommend sending it off for now.


Mick

Welcome Michael,
Indiana is one of my favorite states to travel to to shop for antiques. There are a lot of antique stores there. I have found some of my best straights along highway 40. Have fun and enjoy your shaves. SRP is a great place the advice and suggestions given here will usually get you going in the right direction.

Welcome to SRP

Check out the SRP Classifieds section for someone to hone your razor.

Here are a few SRP guys in Indiana. Maybe they could help?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...rt=posts&pp=50