Hi everyone!!

I am a fresh one here and with mistake already. I have been on this site for two weeks, and I am just overloaded with all the info here! I have begun my reading of the wikis and beginners guide, fyi. I am following the advice here, after making the mistake of buying a razor on ebay first. Sorry, I thought this would be easy to transition to, but I am set straight, this is going to be fun, though. Right now I am just trying to see if anything of what I have done is slavagable.

I Bought a "Crystal Junior" from ebay it says, "J. Lang & Co. Baltimore, MD Made in Germany" on the opposite side. I have little to no knowledge of how good this razor will be, but I can tell the pin that hold the blade has been replace due to some hammering of it. Everything else looks original. My concern is the blade itself. It has some kind of staining on it, black coloration, that I think can be buffed out. And the edge itself, looks to be pretty sharp, but I can tell that there are some very minor dings in it (5 from what my eye can count). I know this means that once I get all the soaps and brush and strop this blade will probably cut me due to these little imperfections on the cutting edge. Thus my query:

Does any senior member of the site live near Chicago so I can get this blade inspected to see if it is a good starter blade and to get it shave ready?
I will be honest I am a hands-on/visual learner and I would appreciate any mentorship possible. I will try and post some pictures of the blade as soon as I get my camera. Thank you!

A little about me: I am 27 yrs-old. Working as a banker at a retail location on the south side of Chicago. Grew up on the south side my whole life. I know very little about baseball, sad I know, and have always wanted a good shave that would not kill my face ever since I started shaving at 13. I like to snowboard, eventhough I have done it only once a year for the past 4 years. I have never taken a golf lesson, but I have made contact with the ball all the time for the past 3 years, it just goes where it pleases.

I can't wait to get this right. Expert honing and shaving will be my goals.

Thank you all for your time, from this newbbie to you!

Regards,

Lokipuck