I picked up my first razor off ebay just the other day. Not the best razor I'll admit, probably would have been better off getting one out of the classifieds that was shave ready so I could start slicing and dicing whiskers right out of the box. But alas I didn't, and I got it thinking it may just need a honing because the scales are in great shape and it looked decent in the pictures. Well I got it out of the box and it was a little worse looking of course upon first inspection, some patina on it, but no rust, just some small pits where it looked like it had before and was cleaned up. Looked decent till I looked down the spine, and its warped. I don't know how bad it is comparably but I know that its bad enough.
Although I know it's not advised to hone early on when shaving with a straight, I already had the sharpening stones (norton 220/1000, norton 4000/8000, and a 12,000 but the name escapes me) and figured I would give it a shot. It took me a while to set the bevel because on one side part of the blade was slightly raised due to the warp and the other side had to be rocked to hit all parts of it. I worked through the grits after I set the bevel, taking my time and I also taped the spine because I didn't want to wear down the spine. I finally got it to pass a HHT all the way down but I think the fact that it was warped caused it have some consistencies. I did like everyone advises and took my first shave slowly after I stropped it, just doing the sideburns and cheeks, then finishing with my DE and it went well. Second shave went equally well but I got a little bit of razor burn, and I also did a full shave with that one, WTG and ATG, and my wife noticed some razor burn. Not to bad considering I'm new and I may have been heavy handed. But the latest one tonight, was not great at all. Razor burn out the wazoo on my cheeks (cause I stopped there) and it pulled and tugged hairs all over. Needless to say this razor, or my sharpening skills/skills in general need work. I'll post picks of the razor later for reference.
