Thread: My first straight razor

This is marked Aubriel 139 Palais Royal. Got it when I was too young to have anything to shave. It was found in the knick knack room of an architectural building supply company. They put all the small cool stuff they found when salvaging buildings in there. I think I paid $5 for it 20 years ago.

Thats a perfect restore candidate. Tape the spine before you set your bevel, you dont want anymore spine wear JMO

Bevel is good. I have it sharp enough to take hair off my arm. I need to get a 10k stone or a proper strop. I sharpened it on the finest stone I have, and then stropped it on some old denim with a little polishing compound to get it to where it's at.

Yes, get the10 or possibly 12k& a good strop. A SRD latigo3" with fabric will suit your needs. Also a crayon of chromium oxide to put on the fabric of the strop.
Guarantee you will be amazed at the difference.
You've basically described how i started years ago.
They are a little expensive, and took a little time to buy them all , but the naniwa stones are worth it. But i use the1-5-8-12k super stones. Then cro/ox on fabric. Then fabric. Then leather. I was amazed at the difference of the shave compared to what i thought was a good edge.YMMV , but i doubt youll have any remorse or guilt.
Remember to lap your stones and bevel the edges before you use them.
Lapping stones are cheap.

Happy shaves
Mike

Great tips. I've been doing a lot of research and shopping for the last week or 2. You aren't kidding on some of the good stones being expensive! Thankfully this one didn't need major work to get the edge right. I'll be investing in stones as needed. Hands down I need a 10k and/or a 12k. I have been looking at both. Just looking forward to telling Mr. Gillette to pound sand on the outrageous refills he wants me to keep buying.

It does look like a pretty decent candidate. Nice ivory scales too. If you are new to shaving it is most often the best path to send it to someone to hone for you until you figure the shaving part out. Once you have the shaving figured out, you can start on the honing. Both require a bit of time to get over the learning curve. Trying to do both at the same time often takes longer and is not nearly as pleasant.

Thanks Rez. With my background, I have the honing pretty well figured out. I need to get some better (finer) stones, and a strop or two, to really refine my edge to where it needs to be. But with what I had already and an improvised denim strop, it takes hair off my arm beautifully, and cleaned up the hair over my chest tattoo no problem. Edge isn't refined enough though for coarse facial hair. It tugs, and/or skips over neck beard, and only took a stroke there, and a stroke at my upper lip to determine the edge just isn't there yet.

I would send it out for restore. The scales are cracked at both pins and further damage is a risk. I have serious doubts the bevel is set properly. You don't know if the bevel was set with tape. Have you looked at the edge with a loop to see what level scratches? I would also stay away from CrOx. It just destroys good bevels and is unnecessary if you hone properly. Ping Doc or one of the other restorers to have it done right. It is a beauty that deserves it.

Bevel was likely not set with tape as there is some hone wear on the spine. We'll see where the adventure takes me, but I do want to undertake the project largely on my own, with tips and advice from the pros, and maybe some help with fixing the scales as that is out of my league.