Thread: First e-bay razor :)

Hey guys,

so i got my first e-bay razor today. It is a "The Artist" Levering Razor co. I know one of the other members on the forum got one of these back in 2010 and was having a tough time honing it. It was suggested that it was the nickel plated model which are supposedly a pain to hone. I think this one is the same model somehow. It just looks too shiny and has no rust except for strange black marks.

So anyway I polished it up with a cloth and some Autosol and gave it a going over with the felt pads on the dremel too and it turned out nice. There is still a few spots that wont come off so I might just leave it rather than expose the unpolished steel beneath.

I honed it on the Norton 4k/8k as it could barely cut arm hair when I got it. Didn't have much luck on the 4k/8k so I thought maybe it needs to have the bevel set so I done 2 sets of 40 circles like Lynn shows in his videos and that made it a bit better but not a lot so I went to the Norton 1k and done the circles on that and then moved onto a sort of pyramid on the 4k/8k and it was shaving arm hair pretty well!

After stropping on Dovo green and then on plain leather and it was shaving arm hair very well, even above the skin kind of. So I decided to test shave it and it actually turned out pretty well I think! I have only one straight razor to compare to which is a new Dovo En Vogue 105 which must not have been very sharp because I find this one to be better!

Alas I was not able to shave my whole face with it as when I got to some of the chin parts it was having difficulty. I am guessing that it simply is not sharp enough to get those spots without a lot of force which I really didn't fancy so I finished with the DE but overall I can say it was not a bad shave for amateur (first) honing I gave it!

If anyone wants to see the razor before its here: Vintage The Artist Straight Razor Levering Razor Co ... - eBay

And after is here(not great lighting here actually now that I look at the pics):

What do you guys think about the razor anyway? It was pretty cheap(9.99 USD). Maybe because he knew it was a nickel plated one? Or am I wrong

Daniel