Thread: Hello from Omaha

Been thinking about switching to a straight for a while, but I'm finally going to give it a try. I bought a brush and some soap and cream to practice the lather and a merkur HD 34C safety razor to practice being more "careful" than is required by disposables.

I'm looking for help picking a "shave ready" razor and strop, probably from the classifieds on this site, that would be a good first set for a newb to destroy. The wiki says get one from a seller who is good at honing, but I don't know which sellers are good at that...

I have two old wade and butcher's (I bought them cheap because I thought the bone scales were pretty cool) that might be able to be restored to shave ready condition, and my mom is going to give me my great grandfathers razor when she finds it. I'm not expecting to be able to bring any of these to shave worthy condition though.

Great website... bought the shaving DVD.

Also, anyone in Omaha, NE or CO Springs, CO (I go there a lot), feel free to introduce yourself.

Jordan

Howdy and welcome to SRP.

I'm in northwestern Missouri. Close to Lamoni, Iowa which isn't TOO far from Omaha. Glad to see that you're going to try the "straight" shave. Take it slow and be patient. Nothing to it really.

Cheers,

Bill

Thanks for the reply. That isn't too far. Know of any shops around that sell decent kit? The drug stores don't have much. We used to have a place called David's Briar Shop, but they closed their Omaha location and now they're only in Des Moines.

I plan to take it slow. So far, I've successfully changed shaving from a chore to a relaxing morning routine, but the Mach 3 is... well... it doesn't sound as nice as a decent DE or straight. I just got some supplies in the mail for wet shaving... I'm kind of old school for a youngerish guy, so why not shave old school too. Gramps probably knew what he was doing - sure wish I could ask him.

Nice pic. R. E. Lee?

Welcome fellow Husker. Was born and raised in Omaha. If you can get some pictures of the W&B's. Someone might be able to tell you if they can be made shave ready. That would save you some up front. Good luck and go slow.

Welcome, I started with a straight this summer so I am a little new as well. I also happen to live in Omaha. Unfortunately I do not know of any shops in town that sell any razors that are shave ready, so your best bet is on-line. I think just about everyone in the classifieds here can hone a razor well, if you are not sure ask them. Let me know if you have any questions.

Glad to see some fellow Omahans (I guess that's how it's spelled?) on here. I was born and raised here too, but I've spent much of the past decade elsewhere, back now though. Too bad on the local stores. Nobody seems to sell anything, not even safety razors and the selection of blades is pretty small. I got some of my wet shaving and safety razor kit in the mail from amazon today, more of it is still on the way. I also got my DVD in the mail today, thanks Lynn! I ordered it Mon or Tues, so that was pretty quick.

I tried to take some pics tonight, but they all turned out really poorly. I'll have time to try again tomorrow, but I'm not that great with a camera. I'm relatively sure that one of the W&Bs will work. I don't see a rust pit on it, the edge doesn't show a smile (or frown), hone wear appears to be minimal, and I think it's a half hollow. The folks I bought that one from claim it's an 1850s era, so it could be pretty old. The stamp doesn't match any of the W&Bs shown on this website though... I paid $20 for it. The other one has some rust pitting, some near the edge - and the edge has a smile. I think it's a wedge grind and the pitting doesn't look bad, so it might be salvageable, but everyone seems to recommend a half to full hollow. I paid $35 for that one. Both have bone scales and looked pretty cool - I bought them before I was thinking about actually trying to use them. I'm not a collector, so who knows if either are even real W&Bs... My mom hasn't tracked down my great grandpa's razor yet, but she says she has it (and his pocket watch, sweet!).

Ok, here are some better pictures, though not great. I tried to get a good image of each side of the blade as well as an edge profile to show the smiles.

Profile of both razors:


The first 3 show the first razor described in the previous post, the one I think is probably fixable:



The second 3 show the second razor described in the previous post, the one that I'm not sure about:

Well, they are real Wade & Butchers as for their age I have no clue. On the first razor the hone wear is a little bit of a problem but I have really no doubts it will give a nice shave once it is properly honed. The last razor does need to be cleaned up a bit. The main concern I can see on that is the rust and possibly pitting near the edge. If the rust messed up the edge and caused pitting it might take some work to get that into working condition. They are both fairly nice, I actually like the razor in that last picture. Anyways that is my rookie opinion, if I am wrong on anything I am sure someone will correct me.

Both the W&B blades look like they could be returned to service.

I'm looking for help picking a "shave ready" razor and strop, probably from the classifieds on this site, that would be a good first set for a newb to destroy. The wiki says get one from a seller who is good at honing, but I don't know which sellers are good at that...

Why assume that you'll ruin your first razor? I'm not suggesting that you need a really pricey blade, but you should get a _good_ one. The W&B's you have probably qualify. If not, check the "Classifieds" here and "www.whippeddog.com".


There are lots of honers in the midWest to choose from. Life is easier if your razor starts out really sharp.

charles

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll look around for someone to work on them. I don't think that I'd necessarily ruin my first blade, but in reading around, a lot of people say that your chances of dropping it, rounding over the edge, etc are a lot higher for people just starting out. At some point in the not too distant future, I'd like to get a hone to try my hand at that. Both of these razors appear to be older and they have really cool bone scales. I think it'd be a shame try things out for the first time with them, when my chances for failure are higher. I do plan to get the fixed up and shave with them though. I also figure that if I were to purchase a shave ready razor I could attempt to shave sooner because I wouldn't have to wait for these to be cleaned up and honed. I'm probably being a bit overprotective, I guess...