Thread: Hello World, from Bowling Green, OH

I wanted to post and say thanks to all the helpful information contained in the various sticky posts around the forum. I decided a few weeks ago to put my sharpening skills to the test (I'm a PharmD student and the repetition is quite relaxing) after I read a post on straight razors from artofmanliness.com. I bought a post-1935 Genco Model B2 with a chipped and rusted blade from ebay for 15 bucks. After quite a few hours, three failed attempts, and lots of forums/videos filled with useful information, I was able to set the edge properly.
My razor has passed the HHT and is easily able to shave the tips of my arm hairs off without touching the skin. I've been shaving for a couple weeks now and I have yet to see any of my own blood *fingers crossed*. I've had the best shaves of my life and I'm definitely a convert.

Razor: Genco Model B2
Sharpening Strategy: 80, 120, 320, 600, 900, and 1200 grit silicon carbide stones
Polishing Strategy: Leather Straps permeated with 4000, 8000, 1600, 60,000 grit chromium oxide paste.
Brush/Soap: Van Der Hagen (Rite-Aid sale)
Post Shave: Nivea dye free, alcohol free shave balm

Welcome to SRP!
Well that is a different honing strategy. I trust the second picture is a before shot.
most of the time razors do not need to go below 325 grit which is plenty fast enouh to remove a big nick in the blade. some folks might view 4 pasted strops as excessive, are they hanging or a paddle / bench hone? i would like to see your setup

It is good to see people take different paths to the achieve a good shave. gencos are nice shavers.

enjoy,
jim

Originally Posted by syslight

Welcome to SRP!
Well that is a different honing strategy. I trust the second picture is a before shot.
most of the time razors do not need to go below 325 grit which is plenty fast enouh to remove a big nick in the blade. some folks might view 4 pasted strops as excessive, are they hanging or a paddle / bench hone? i would like to see your setup

I bought a long 1" strip of 8oz thickness cowhide leather from a leather factory online and epoxied them to paint stirrers. I just use hand clamps to keep them in place on my desk. It keeps them steady and still so I can make precise and consistent strokes. I'll snap a photo when I have some better light.

Very interesting! If you ever want to try a more traditional honing set up, feel free to stop by my B&M workshop in Adrian, MI sometime and you're more than welcome to use some of my stones. I'm only about an hour drive from you. Welcome to SRP! Glad to see more in my area!

That sounds cool. I'm definitely interested because I've basically just adapted what I've learned and have from knife sharpening to razors. It is conceptually similar but it would probably be a lot easier with wider specialized hones like the norton ones I've seen on here.