My freshly revived 5 day set

[naes]

Hey all. Long time lurker, very new member here. I recently picked up a few razors from a friend of mine whose grandfather was a barber in Long Beach from 1918 to ~1970. I got to dig through a box of his old stuff and grabbed a few razors that looked good using the eye of the most uneducated razor newbie there is! I grabbed 5 blades and 2 hones from the stash. I also picked up some soap, a brush and hanging strop, all online.

I posted my finds in the Member intro thread and Jerry aka 10Pups was kind enough to invite me over and join him, Mike aka Wolfpack and Zak aka Voidmonster for an afternoon revolving around all things straight razor. They definitely took me under their wings walking me through all the steps necessary to send me out into the world of straight razoring at home and keeping my equipment in good shape. Initially I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of information and figuring out the lingo but they were all kind enough to keep me in the loop and let me do a good amount of hands on work. I got the hones reshaped on a diamond embedded tool that takes the cupping out of them. It didn't take much work to get them flat. Very similar to wet sanding a car is about what I can equate it to. Jerry turned me loose on the buffer to cut decades of neglect off the blades. I've done a little buffing work before but holding a razor in your hand while you do it is a completely different animal! Then Mike showed me how to hone my blades using the stones I have and will be using myself. I guess there is a ton of variables from stone to stone so using my equipment gets me used to my stuff so I can develop a feel for it, which will come in time. Then the strop lessons began. My ebay strop was pretty much useless so Jerry was kind enough to let me have one of his home made paddle strops. Mike again walked me through the steps and kept reinforcing proper technique. Zak had a few pointers as well and brought over a collection of incredible recent finds. Way out of my league but between him and Mike, I can see the collecting disease sinking its teeth into me!

In the end I was sent off with 5 very usable razors that will last me forever with regular routine maintenance. I cannot thank these guys enough for taking the time to show me as much as they did. I felt confident enough to go at it when I got home and treat myself to my first straight razor shave. I used my Spike and Arko soap. For the first time I did OK. 1 small nick at the upper corner of my mouth, under my nose, but the rest went pretty well. Sides of the face were super smooth as was my neck. The chin and around the mouth area required touching up with my Shick Quattro (Oh the sacrilege!) but it didn't get anything on my neck or sides of my face so I must have done an alright job.

Enough ranting, here's some pics for you, shave ready!



Spike gold tang




Henckels


Sheffield which may undergo a full restoration. If Mike doesn't pry it away from me! LOL


Spike which was my first shave


Again, a huge thanks go out to 10Pups, Wolfpack and Voidmonster for all taking time away from their hobby time to help me. I look forward to new acquisitions and talking shop with you guys in the near future

NAES