Thread: Finally Stopped Lurking and joined up. Wanted to say thanks for all the info

So here's my story....
My wife one day says to me "check out this website.... the Art of Manliness" of course I says back, "what the hell is that supposed to mean", but she calmed me down in her cajun fashion so I checked it out. The straight razor shave hit me and intrigued me so I started looking into it.

Not sure where all I went but I am sure all the usual suspects we have all checked out. So I started looking for gear. Being poor as hell and not knowing what I was doing or if I would like it I started with a cheap disposable from a beauty supply place for 9 bucks. I happend to already have a brush, and some Colonel Conk shave soap. So I went to cutting. Cut myself pretty good too that first time, of course, but I kept on the horse.

After I got comfortable with the disposable I started looking for the real deal. One of the things I saw a lot was that you can pick up a great razor at antique shops and the like. Not around here apparently. I haven't been able to find a servicable razor anywhere within 30 miles of where I live. So I started asking family. I started with my dad. I remembered my grandmother once showing me a box with my grandfathers personal stuff (he died in 1952), in it I remeber there being at least one straight razor. So I asked my dad about it and he told me my uncle had them and to call him and get them. So I did. What a great find!


My grand father, and possibly my great grand father had a Hess Hair Milk labs 100, a Clauss, and a H Boker Our Very Own. They looked like hell. They were sitting in a box for 60 years with no oil and no case. But I was determined to get them in working condition. And I didnt know anything about them except I was not willing to mail them, or trust anyone else to touch them for fear of losing them. Thats just me, i would rather break the scales or chip the blade and be mad at myself than at someone who is otherwise an artist at restoring razors who may just had a bad day or freak accident. These things mean a lot to me. i want to pass them down to my son and show him how to use them. So the adventure begins.

As of now I have them clean and honed (not to a mirror finish) but I am using them thanks in part to the great wealth of information here at SRP. So I just wanted to stop by and say Hi, and thank you all for this huge library of information that has helped me out so much.

Hi, and welcome to SRP! We'd love to see your razors, post a pic or two. Heirloom razors are highly thought of here because a lot of the members would cherish a piece of their family history, but seems many of the old razors were just tossed when their forefathers passed on. I, like you, was lucky and found 6 or 7 in an old cigar box. Not the prettiest, but the most valued too me!

Reading up on shaving, technique and prep, and razor maintenance, etc. will really benefit you as you begin this journey. You'll find a link below to the wiki which has some great help items in it. Also this link to the beginners tips will help too. Straight Razor Place - Welcome to Straight Razor Place Lots of members here to help, so ask away when you have questions. Also, if you do ever decide to send out a razor for honing, maintenance or restoration, the links to our classifieds and vendors are below too. You'll find some incredibly talented craftsmen here at SRP.

Glad to have you on the forum! Enjoy, and great shaves!!

Regards,
Howard

Welcome to SRP, glad to have you with us. Well done on your cleanup, pictures would be brilliant

I do most of my surfing on my phone. This post is supposed to have pics but I can't seem to get them from my phone to here. I'll have to get my laptop out and do some shuffling. BRB.

Hi and most welcome to SRP gdr! I enjoyed reading your story, GREAT intro!

i lucked out i have my dad and granddad's razors and they were users so i got them in great shape, some when i was starting out and them the rest when they passed on.

they are some of my more cherished razors.

enjoy,
jim

Dirty Clauss and Hess

This is the cleaned up Clauss and Hess. I tried to just wipe and use a steel cleaning/polish but ended up having to get the drimmel out. Turned out fine, there is minor pitting on the face and some spots on the spine, the bevel was fine. I did the cleaning without unpinning the scales. Just used a qtip and some rubbing alchohol between the scales then washed with water. The Hess seemed to my untrained eye to be the more heavily used and looked to me to be honed to death. Welcome a trained eyes opinion on that. Sorry if I make anyone cringe at my cleaning methods, went from gentle to firm but was kinda scared to get after them with sandpaper. Used a rubber kinda drimmel bit that took off the stains fairly quickly, but left some marks I had to polish out a bit with a buffing wheel and red metal polish, again drimmel.

Those cleaned up nice. Looks like you got some good family heirloom razors there.

Nice, those razors. The Hess is well honed, no doubt there, and I would hesitate to buy it perhaps because of the honewear - but yours are heirlooms, and therefore in a totally different class. Even the Hess llooks to me to still be serviceable. If it works, use it. If not, frame it and hang it on the wall, with a small plaque giving it's information. Cool finds, cherish them.