Thread: Hello from Appleton, WI

Hello everyone, I'm Rob and have been reading the forum for a month or so. My first straight razor shave was last week on an antique store blade that I fixed up, it took 45 minutes but only one very minor cut and I feel the razor is not what it should be. I've got a Norton 4/8 and a Star Shaving strop. I just made another blade out of a file and actually shaved a couple passes with it. Terriible, but after a day of grinding I can say it really is finally a razor instead of a hunk of metal. I'll post some pics in the appropritate catagories. Thanks to all the members for the great info. I am very exicited to be shaving with a straight after a number of years contemplating it.Rob

Hello, Rob, and welcome to Straight Razor Place. I am in Milwaukee, and if you need any help, please drop me a note. Good luck with your shaving.

Thanks Obie,
I'd really love to find someone in the Appleton area to get together with rather than trying to explain the issues and have people kind of guess at the causes online. Any forumites out there near me willing to point me in the right direction mainly regarding honing and stroppping. I feel my shaving technique is coming along fine. 2 weeks into it and I can't wait to shave again, I'm hooked. Thanks, Rob

You are welcome. Unfortunately I don't know anyone in the Appleton area who could be of help to you.
My concern with how you are approaching straight razor shaving is this: Right now you seem to be putting a big emphasis on honing, whereas you should mostly concentrate on proper stropping and shaving techniques. Honing can come later. Learn to master the straight razor and the strop first and then move to the hone. Each element of straight razor shaving has its distinct skills. A step at a time.

Thanks and point taken,
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately because I'm learning alot about the nature of the razors edge) I didn't listen to the common advice about buying a shave ready razor and learning to use it before attempting restorations. I have two rough antique store specials and a hand ground file/kamisori none of which anyone would call shave ready. So I'm learning to grind, hone, strop and shave all at the same time. I have definitely underestimated the sublety of the razors edge, having been used to restoring plane blades and chisels, rust and pitting dd not bother me. I see now that they can be serious issues and even make a blade unfixable. Probably a topic for another section of the forum. For now I am shaving OK and think the main issue is the blades, they are getting better though.
Rob

You have at least 3 guys in Appleton. Send them a PM/email and see what happens.
Here are the SRP names...

abstractlogic
http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...ractlogic.html

jeremycarriveau
http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...carriveau.html

machine
http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/machine.html

Hope this helps

Learning all three at once is possible ( I did it that way also) if I was to do it again I would skip the honing for a bit. The best thing I did was find a local person (randydance062449) to teach me honing and I went to some local get togethers.

Well here I thought there wasn't anyone near me and come to find out a few are about 90min away and another a few hours.