4 Attachment(s)
Checking in from New Hampshire
Greetings from the Granite State! First a big thank you to the senior members for all the great information contained in this forum. Between the Library, Lynn's DVD and SRP Videos on You Tube I have not had to ask any questions to start down straight razor road. My story goes something like this...
Sometime late in February or early March I had a mental break in BJ's Wholesale Club when confronted with the chore of dropping $50 on disposable cartridges, again. I never bought them, and proceeded to order a Merkur 38C and a sampler pack of DE blades. Fifty bucks better spent I figured. I really enjoyed the traditional wet shaving process and learned about proper preparation, beard growth and post shave care. So this wet shaving hobby introduced me to a number great online retailers: Straight Razor Designs, The Superior Shave, West Coast Shaving, Whipped Dog, Vintage Blades etc, etc, etc.....while surfing these shaving "porn" sites I would always find myself checking out the straight razors. Now that's shaving....
Early April, my Dovo Palisander 6/8 arrives from the Superior Shave and my 3" Strop makes it in from SRD. You will be glad to know I did not strop the razor before using it. I spent two weeks making the N-S sideburn pass and finishing my shave with the DE. I started acclimating my left hand from the get go. Soon thereafter I was making a complete N-S pass. I realized now that I had begun stropping that I no longer had a reference for a "sharp" razor, but fortunately SRP got a few Ralf Aust Grenadilla 6/8 Spanish Point's in and I ordered one. I managed not to roll my edges stropping and have maintained HHT sharpness and comfortable shaves on the Palisander. The Aust gets a one swipe cameo every once in a while to remind me about sharp.
Now I got the itch to learn how to hone....the problem for me was that I already own the necessary tools to get me into real trouble. My assortment of Japanese Chef's Knives gave me SAD (stone acquisition disorder) so I have from DMT Coarse to 10K Naniwa in all different flavors. I really didn't want to flail away on a perfectly good new blade so I went to the antique store.
The Gods of Sharpness must have been shining on me. I found a little leather roll in the back of a glass display case that contained 4 of the 5 blades below.
Attachment 165105
The first two blades (L to R) are HM Christensen 4/8 from Brockton/ Boston MA (with the second imprinted MYERS which I believe is an older HMC), Third is a 132 Red Imp Wedge 5/8, Fourth was not in the set (purchased separately) Robert Klass 22 Kissing Stork round point 6/8 and lastly a Tritch 6/8 round point. Only the Tritch has scale damage. Cracked at the wedge pin. All the razors had relatively straight edges.
The HMC "Brothers" looked identical out of the roll. The photo above was taken after I rubbed the blade down with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 2000 paper and some Mother's polish. It looked like it had the most hone wear, the perfect candidate. I started honing. Three sets of 20 circles on the 1K Shapton Pro set a bevel. X strokes on the 5K Shapton Pro, 8K Shapton Pro, 10K Naniwa, Hand America CroX and leather strop had it tree topping arm hair (my new favorite sharpness test). Sunday I celebrated my first 3 pass shave with a blade I honed myself!
I am looking forward to continuing my journey down Straight Razor Road! Are there any mentors, or members that get together in New England?
Here are some more pics.....
Attachment 165102
Attachment 165103
Attachment 165104
Thanks again for the great forum and for supporting my new habit......
Gran8man
