#81 has landed.
Huh! Mine, #117, arrived 10-7-13. I suppose that means that whomever reserved 81 in the first place had his circumstances change & he released it. Good for you Mike. I guess the numbers being delivered give no clue as to whether or not they are all spoken for unless Robert speaks up (hint, hint).

Like you, I am very happy with it. It was truly shave ready as delivered and I've kept it that way with my usual preemptive touch up of six laps on an Escher every half dozen shaves. It doesn't come up often in the rotation so I had only 12 shaves on it as of yesterday. I'd noticed that the end of the heel had a small (~3/16") flat spot where the bevel sides did not meet but it still shaved wonderfully so I let it go. Yesterday I finally decided to fix it. It took a bit of head scratching to figure it out due to the challenging blade geometry (variable spine thickness and the smile) but only a little bit of work on the 1K & 5K Chosera's did the trick. I skipped the 10K and went straight to a jnat to finish and was rewarded this morning with one of the smoothest edges I've ever used. I'm still faceturbating. I seem to have stumbled into just what that steel, that hardness, that shape, and that stone wanted under my hand. It's actually better than it was when new and that is saying something!

I have to echo your thanks to RW for the fine piece of work. It's not only beautiful but takes and holds a great edge.



rs,
Tack