Thread: What Do You Have In The Mail Right Now?

Got the boxed Smith's in, flattened, lapped, dressed to 320 on one side, 800 on the other and it leaves a scorching keen edge.

Chamfered all edges just for good measure. This one seems much more dense than the other blacks I have. It's also darker. This one is black like a PHIG whereas my others are like a gray/black. It took forever and a boatload of SIC to get it lapped.

My Dan’s black is noticeably harder than my former vintage translucent Pike but in use the edges were indistinguishable. The lapping on the other hand... The black luckily came as it should from Dan’s, flat. The translucent had a low 1/3 extending from a corner down the long side of the hone to about the middle 1/3 on the long side. It took me the same amount of time to lap those to their “finished” sanded surface, burnishing has been an ongoing project looking for “that edge”. Surface was taken to 2k wet/dry, iirc.

I was going to sand mine further up the grits and I may still but since Arks are so slow to begin with and in particular trans and blacks I decided I would leave it at 800 for the time being. Generally I try to compensate by decreasing pressure to almost waving it over the stone on the last few laps, that and adding a drop of Dawn dishwashing liquid seems to make a big difference. You can already see where the middle is burnishing just from the couple of razors that I finished on it.

This isn't exactly in the mail but this seemed a fitting place to post about it. My lovely bride bought me this today for my gear.

The cabinet not the dog. I'll put stones and other gear in the bigger bottom drawers and put liners in the top drawers for the razors. Now I can finally get them out of boxes and into a useful order. Cups and brushes can go on the top along with my barber box for my regular rotation. Probably put hooks on the side for strops. She's been after me to get my strops off the towel rack anyway.

Just ordered, arriving Friday.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

This isn't exactly in the mail but this seemed a fitting place to post about it. My lovely bride bought me this today for my gear.

The cabinet not the dog. I'll put stones and other gear in the bigger bottom drawers and put liners in the top drawers for the razors. Now I can finally get them out of boxes and into a useful order. Cups and brushes can go on the top along with my barber box for my regular rotation. Probably put hooks on the side for strops. She's been after me to get my strops off the towel rack anyway.

LOL at "towel rack"! I bet she even calls the honing table a "dining table", huh? But that looks like a handy storage unit and it was very thoughtful of her to get it for you. You have a winner! Still, SMH at calling the strop hanger a "towel rack". No point arguing about it, though. She knows where you sleep.

It came this morning!

Snatched this lot from some unaware bidders as well as the the seller who didn't know.


As I am always searching these lots for the proverbial Picasso at a garage sale I managed to spot a hidden gem not named or in the description anywhere.... anybody see it?

Here's a closer look...

Yep, Wade and Butcher FBU tucked away. I have paid more than 3 times as much for FBUs by themselves as I did for the whole lot and there are still others worth having. Granted this one seems to be less than 8/8 from what I can tell but still a collectible one and it appears to have very little if any hone wear.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Snatched this lot from some unaware bidders as well as the the seller who didn't know.


As I am always searching these lots for the proverbial Picasso at a garage sale I managed to spot a hidden gem not named or in the description anywhere.... anybody see it?

Here's a closer look...

Yep, Wade and Butcher FBU tucked away. I have paid more than 3 times as much for FBUs by themselves as I did for the whole lot and there are still others worth having. Granted this one seems to be less than 8/8 from what I can tell but still a collectible one and it appears to have very little if any hone wear.

Strange, I was going to vote for the ruler

Also picked up this little John Prinble "I'm Sharp" faux frame back.



Looks to just need a good cleaning since it too looks almost if not never used. Maybe my thinking is wrong about this but what people call patina looks to me just like old corrosion that needs to go away. I like them shiny and new looking not old and tarnished looking.