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

Maybe I missed something, but why do you feel it is nickel-plated?

He mentioned that it was suggested that the other he had read about might be nickel plated. Mine which has a lot of hone ware has a definite difference in reflectivity. The bevels are a different color from the rest of the razor. I have no idea how to test for nickle platting, but if someone has a good test I would be willing to consider it. How would nickel respond to phosphoric acid.

Jonathan

Hey ace,

the reason i think it#s nickel plated is becase of this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...co-artist.html

It looks exactly the same and when you look at it up close it almost looks like there is metal wrapped around it so to speak. Like when you see plastic coated in shiny silver paint to look like metal - only it doesnt look THAT bad but a close inspection sure shows a difference to pure steel.

Many bevels on older razors will look different from the rest of the blade. Remember you are exposing NEW steel when you are honing and will look different from the rest of the razor. Even if the blade doesn't seem to have patina, the color could vary slightly. Also depending on the grit of your final polishing stone the mirror on the bevel could be of a higher level finish than that of the rest of the razor.

Nice save on that one, from what I can see it looks fine now. I bet it's gonna be a nice shaver once you get it properly honed.

ThanksYeah it looks a bit better than id originally did anyway! I honed it again just now and seems quite sharp. One strange thing I noticed while honing actually is that it seemed to cut arm hair with far less effort off the norton 4k than the 8k!! Why would this be? Made no sense to me! Also here are some close ups for those that are interested, took them with a USB microscope:

Looks like there is some micro chipping on the edge, looking at the last pic unless its some super magnification.

Yeah the magnification is 500x so it probably looks worse than it is. Nevertheless it could do with some more honing if say. I am waiting on my belgian coticule which should be here soon so maybe that will give it a nicer edge. I'll post another pic when I give it a shot. What do you reckon from the magnified pics though? Does it look like normal steel? I kinda think it does but I'm no expert.

Looks like normal steel to me, you probably need to set the bevel you can do that on norton 4k, just dont leave the 4k until the razor shaves arm hair easily, then you can move on to 8k and so on. The reason im suggesting the 4k is because some razors dont respond well to norton 1k and cause micro-chipping.