Thread: Newbie in SR-world

Hi!

I'm Manne from Sweden and I am quite new to the SR-world. I've been lurking about the SRP forums a bit and have become quite fascinated with straight razors, spending hours upon hours reading about straight razors, grinds, honing, DIY strops, pastes etc.

As I usually do, I got carried away and plunked down quite alot of money (for me) into an ebay straight razor, which looked good and legit at the moment.

Here is the pic from the auction:




It has gold the gold etching "Solinger wertarbeit" and the stamp "Backal Solingen". So it looks good yea? Which was what I thought until I got it in the mail... in a small plastic folder:



And it has some kind of defect on the back/shoulder (not sure what this part is called):



My question is... does anyone know about this brand, Backal, is it legit or another pakistan razor? Should I keep this one or try to find a better one?

/Manne

(Link to image 2 & 3 in case it doesnt work)
View image: Picture 33.jpg
View image: Picture 32.jpg

Welcome to SRP. I don't know the brand but if the only 'defect' is towards the heel I don't think you have any worries. You should have it honed by a pro or at least someone with experience. I am sure we have members in Sweden. Here is the member map where you may be able to find someone near you who might help out with sharpening the razor to shave ready. Alternatively you might have an old barber near you who is well versed in straight razors and honing.

welkommen Manne
it looks pretty good from here
who did you buy from?
is it shave ready?
if someone made a cut in the shoulder(looks like that on the picture)
it should not effect performance

theres quite a few swedes here so someone may be close and willing to help

The guy I bought it from is ebay member: siehstejuutaus at ebay.de. He seems to be selling similar razors, blonde scales, but from dorko and under other brands. I am suspecting now that they are all the same razor, but branded differently.

Anyways, after a bit of poking the "defect", with the surgical precision a wooden toothpick offers, it came to my attention that the black spot was actually some kind of grease and that the metal underneath was fine, my bad.

The razor itself is sharp, very sharp, but I hardly think it is shave ready, it cannot pass the hanging hair test and can just barely shave the hairs off my arm. I know it is best to send the razor away to a honemeister for honing, and I will try to find someone in Sweden who can do this.

Otherwise if I don't find one of these mythical persons, I have planned to learn this skill myself . I already purchased an old Hugo Köller, probably half a century old, for pretty much nothing. The scales are barely hanging together and it is anything but clean, though rust free. However, it really sings when you stroke the blade, really amazing.

I will try to get this razor into shave ready condition before honing the Backal. It might take some time, but I got patience... and a set of DMT8E, 8EE and a 12k chinese stone. Hopefully I will get it right after a while.

But if someone knows a honemeister in Sweden right off the bat, I would be more than delighted to know.

/Manne

The hht is more or less just a parlour trick and you shouldn't worry about it. what you should be more worried about is shavability. If the razors doesn't easily cut arm hair it's not ready to shave your face. Definitely get it looked at by a pro and make sure everything is copesetic with it. good luck and good job on the find!