Getting into DE after a trip to the local antique store

[JellyJar]

Decided to stop at my local store to see if anything new had popped up. I've been toying with trying a DE for a couple of weeks and saw a nice looking Gillette for $10. The gentleman helping me with the Gillette led me to his area of the store where I found a Gillette Milord DE in its case with an unopened box of Star brand blades. The case appears to be covered in alligator (right pattern and it smells right) and is in really good condition. So, that went into the buy pile and he knocked $10 off a package of two straights and an Asco brand Champion razor hone in it's original box with instructions.

The hone appears pretty flat and lightly used. I'll probably clean it up and give it a try at some point, as I've no experience with the old barber style hones.

The straights are a "Clean cut" stamped with Germany and some faint gold wash on the blade face. The pivot pin is a bit loose, but it otherwise appears to be pretty clean. The second straight is The Torrey and has some active rust around the pivot and near the edge. I'm fairly certain the rust near the edge with get taken care of with some honing, but I'll probably take the blade out to clean up the pivot area. The scales could use a good cleaning and some polishing.

While I know how to deal with the straights, I've not a clue about the DE razors. I'm thinking toothbrush and some dish soap and maybe a little mineral oil on the pivot mechanism? The handle of the unboxed Gillette appears to be Bakelite. I think I'll leave the Star blades in the unopened condition and get a 5 or 7 blade sampler from Maggard. I'm thinking about the Gillette silver blue, Wilkinson sword, maybe Kai and Feather? Any advice or suggestions on the clean up and blade choices would be appreciated. The pics are below...

The whole purchase


The clean cut


The Torrey


The unboxed Gillette


The Gillette Milord