Thread: Question regarding C-MON Special Microtome

Hi Gentleman (and Ladies interested in Straights),

My name is Walt, and I am 57 years old, at least for a few months. I recently got into DE and Straights, about two months ago. I learned to shave on a hand-me-down Gillette DE (model escapes me), Boar brush and Williams soap back in the early 70s. When I went to Paris Island in 1976, we were only allowed to shave with the then new to the market cartridge razor. After Paris Island, I just continued using cartridges up until a couple of months ago. I now mourn at the thought of all of those wasted shaves, as I clearly have more shaves behind me than I probably have in front of me.

True to my nature, I got into this with a serious amount of RAD, and now own or have coming no less than 9 Straights, including the subject razor, and 3 DEs plus an ATT 7 piece with a slant along with another baseplate and the largest handle. The referenced microtome really intrigued me as I am a scientist working in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. Ever since I went to college back in the early 80s, rotary microtomes were readily in use, and I never even new that they made a straight razor version of the microtome for making histology microscope slides.

The guy that I bought this microtome from said that he thought that he recalled some past discussions regarding the microtome and perhaps shaving with it. I found some vintage instructions on sharpening a microtome, and they clearly talk about it being double beveled, but I do not know if they are referring to a hand held microtome such as this. Given the date, I suspect so. If you are not familiar with these, they have a hollow ground on the front of the blade, and they have a flat or full wedge on the back. There is a small bevel on the back of the subject blade which I believe to be the factory bevel. the front of the blade also has a bevel that I assume is achieved just as a normal razor bevel is achieved.

My questions are as follows: Has anyone ever sharpened these and shaved with them as they are? If so, how did you address the back bevel? When using a standard RH grip, the flat is against the skin. Does this result in excessive skin drag when shaving at normal angles?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.