Newbie from Oklahoma

Hello, I would like to introduce myself.

You can call me Sid, I have been interested in blades of all types for many years, and recently decided to give the straight razor shaving a try. My process began last week while posting to Facebook to my friends to see if anyone had any old razors they would like to donate/sell.

I had a few people let me know that the local salon supply store sold them. I was not interested. but I was given a few Pakistani/Chinese razors by friends, and figured it would be good practice to try and get them honed.

My hones I have had I quickly determined were not working. and my search online lead me to your fine website.

Today I ordered the Norton 4k/8k along with a Suehiro D1069 Japanese #1200
I have an Amazon prime membership and should have the hones in a few days with free shipping.

I also am lucky enough to have a sister that is a very huge Antique dealer, sometime this week I plan to head over and see what she has, on the phone she has told me she has many razors some in good condition some in bad. she also has lots of accessories (brushes ect.) she is my big sis so hopefully I can get a good deal.

My plan is to begin restoring some of the old junk she has and have some fun doing it.
To be honest I have less interest in learning to shave (although I certainly will) I truly just like playing with blades of all types and looking forward to the challenge of learning to restore razors.

Thank you for taking the time to read about me.

Welcome to SRP Sid!
I hope your sister has a few beauties for you to buy!
Good luck with your restoration, honing and shaving.
Any question, feel free to ask, there are a huge bunch of very knowledgeable and friendly people on here who loves to help:)

Welcome to the forum. Check out the links on the front page for the beginners tips. You are going to want to get some better razors but at least you've found the right place to get information.

Good luck,
Michael

Welcome! You have started a journey from which there is no return. hornm is correct, I would recommend buying a 40.00 -50.00 razor "shave ready" from the classifieds here on SRP. I also hone my own stuff, but am learning that all blades are not created equal.

Regrards,
Chip

Hello and welcome to SRP. I'm sure you'll find anything you need for info and restoring around here. And if you can't find it just ask :)

Thanks all for the kind words. I do have some questions. If you don't mind I will probably stick to my introduction thread for a few days until I get my post count up.

My 1200 grit waterstone arrived today but my norton 4k/8k is back ordered, I am leaving for Italy this weekend for a week so I won't have time to go to my sisters antique shop. So that leaves me with playing with the cheap china blades.

My question... One of the new china blades is not flat on the bottom. If I hold it in a bread knife position it curves up on the edges. Kinda of like a smile??? Should I just hone that flat? Or is there a certain way to hone it? The way I am trying to hone it from the videos I have watched is only cutting into the center of the blade.

Edit: I think I figured out how to hone the smile. But wow these Chinese razors suck, the bevel is perfect on one side. I have a jewelers loop andcan see one side is perfectly beveled but the other side sway off. Not sure what to do about that but spend days reseting it.