Thread: Has razor wants to shave

Hello All,
I'm new to the straight razor game. I've always been a fan of a good blade and have been similarly attracted to the straight razor but have been hesitant to take the plunge into actually shaving with one. That is until another dull razor cartridge went into the garbage and I just refuse to give another dollar to the Gillette machine. Plus, let's face it, wet shaving is just plain cool.
With my newfound ambition I went out to a couple antique stores and blindly bought a razor and strop, came home and realized I don't have any idea what I'm doing. Enter the interweb and Straightrazorplace.com; thank you for being here and I hope you will be entertained by my, umm, naiveté and can help me out a bit at the same time.
I do have some knowledge of blades so I don't think I really screwed up too badly on the razor I bought for $30.00. It says "FRED. BROEKER ELIZABETH N.J. Made in Germany" on one side of the tang and "Pride of Elizabeth" with a 10 on the reverse. It has a clean edge and there is no rust on it, though there is a touch of black discoloration on the back of the spine. I'm fairly certain it still has the factory edge, there isn't any wear on the bevel or the spine. Will this be a passable tool or should I go out and try again?
I don't have anything to hone it with, I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction on that, and basically everything else. I'm thick skinned enough to take criticism but not enough to start haphazardly scraping on my face with this beast with a tortoise shell handle. Any help will be appreciated!
Thank You,
Cyrus

First check here, there are about 30 people on here that offer services for the razor..

Member Services - Straight Razor Place Classifieds=

Second a pic posted in this thread would help... but it still needs to be made shave ready, BEFORE you start...


Welcome to SRP

Congrats on the purchase. Can't say whether or not is is a good blade, I am still really new to this myself. I do share your enthusiasm on str8 shaving. I wish there were some antique shops I knew about where I currently am. Sounds like it would be fun to hunt for a new blade in a shop with a bunch of old stuff.

I have not had to have my blade re-honed as of yet. It came megatron sharp from Lynn at SRD, but from what I have read here on the forums pretty much anyone you send it to listed on the classifieds will do a superb job honing it for you. I would recommend doing that as I have also read of people making blades worse who do not know what they are doing honing a razor; it's way different than sharpening a knife.

Good luck, hope you learn fast and get great shaves form the get-go.

-amt

Welcome and have fun! It's nice to go with a trusted and experienced straightrazor vendor. The products at SRP are drool worthy.

Here are a couple of pics I took of my razor, the apparent nicks on the edge are an artifact of my poor camera/photography. We shall see if its any good or not. Meanwhile I will be reading the links that you folks so graciously pointed me towards. Thanks a lot.

That razor will do the job juuusssttt fine A run through a honemeister's stones and a quick hand polish and you're in business!