Thread: My first razor.

My sister is an Antique dealer and I had told her about my interest in straight razors, so she dug through her collection and found a nice one to give me.
it is a North American cutlery company.beaver city Nebraska. the photo she took was not that clear, because she is at a antique show in Dallas at the moment. My Norton 4k/8k should arrive in a week or so. I can't wait to begin a little restoration and attempt my first shave.

Nice! I wouldn't restore it, I'd just hone her up and go for it. the blade looks to be in good condition.

What you might want to do is get that blade pro honed and then get a second blade to practice honing on. Learning to hone and shave at the same time can be a bit difficult and removing one of the variables with a pro honed blade can make the learning curve faster and the experience a lot more enjoyable.

If you do decide to go ahead with honing yourself I'd recommend using tape on the spine to protect against spine wear and compare the edge to a DE blade as you go.

Have a good read of the wiki articles and threads on honing as well, they'll really help.

Good luck and keep us posted!

+1 on Stubear. It looks nice enough to put back in service as it is. Also, If you are new to straight razors a pro honing will take that part out of the steep learning curve. Many a newbies question the sharpness of a pro honing not knowing that it is their technique that is causing the problem. If you don't have to concern yourself with that part of the equation (the sharpness of the razor) it will be easier to focus on your shaving technique.

Most of what can be said, has.
Welcome and most importantly, enjoy.

Lovely looking blade there! I also agree that when learning to str8 shave its wise to reduce the number of variables i.e. is the blade properly sharp?

Expect it to take a couple of dozen shaves before you get good ones, but it will continue to improve after that too.