Thread: Present from an old friend

LOL! Had me freaking out trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. :P

The more I look at the Matador and various Filarmonicas online, the more I'm convinced it's either a spanish knock-off or a made-for situation. I'm hoping the latter

I believe the DE might be a 1938 British popular no.46, nice gift!

No...I don't think it is. Thanks though, gave me a great starting point to start researching. Here's a link to pics of that one.


It looks very similar but the bottom side of the head is wrong. It looks more like this one.

A link to possible id on the Matador: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...e-germany.html

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I was a member of that other site until a few weeks ago when I called B.S on the subject,They banned me for being argumentitive

Welcome to the club.

What will get you into trouble is claiming that noobs should go buy Gold Dollars and shave with them (because they often require work that only an experienced user could deal with, negating the cost benfit). Saying that you own one and use it has never been a problem. That Double Arrow looks fine (from the limited information provided by the picture), and would probably hone up just fine.

Originally Posted by DFriedl

What will get you into trouble is claiming that noobs should go buy Gold Dollars and shave with them (because they often require work that only an experienced user could deal with, negating the cost benfit). Saying that you own one and use it has never been a problem. That Double Arrow looks fine (from the limited information provided by the picture), and would probably hone up just fine.

Oh really? Good to know

One thing I will pull you up on is your idea that 'now I have 5 razors that aren't shave ready I need to Learn how to hone' - a classic statement that couldn't be further from the truth. The first thing you need to do is learn how to SHAVE and strop - leave the rest for later on. Being in the USA there is no excuse for not sending your razors out to a professional, it will cost but at least you wont be fumbling around trying to create a shave ready edge without any reference point. Just my 2c

They aren't all worth having honed. At least 2 of them are perfect practice razors...one with a severely uneven wear pattern on the spine and one with a big bite out of the point. (I've since re-ground that.)

Right now wet shaving is brand new to me, I'm having a love affair with boar hair. I'm making friends with the DE, in a month or three I'll have hopefully gotten at least 1 of my straight razors honemeistered. But, in the last month I've taken an interest in Straights...and in that time had 5 razors fall into my lap due to good friends finding out I was interested in their old junk. At this rate the cost of sending out for honing will soon outstrip the cost of a set of stones.

Now I see well respected guys on here always putting the breaks on people wanting to learn to hone and I simply just don't comprehend that. If I was currently trying to learn to shave with a straight, would you tell me not to also try to learn to surf, or oil paint, or to speak Japanese? No, of course not. It's not a bad idea to try to learn 2 things at once, if it was then sending our kids to school would be a mistake. And it's especially not a bad idea to learn two related skills at once. They will resonate in a way that will keep you interested, motivated, and dedicated.

Honing isn't a skill exclusively useful to shaving, which is one reason I would like to learn it. Another is just the satisfaction of learning a new skill. Another is that I would be self reliant. Another is that its something I could teach my kids.

I understand that I shouldn't take a dull razor and try to hone it and then try to shave with it, without experiencing what it's like to shave with a truly shave ready edge...or try to "touch up" something on a hone that just needs stropping. Those are valid points and i respect and agree with that. But I don't see what that has to stop anyone from trying to better themselves and expand their knowledge and skill, in anything.

Originally Posted by Nonstickron

I understand that I shouldn't take a dull razor and try to hone it and then try to shave with it, without experiencing what it's like to shave with a truly shave ready edge...or try to "touch up" something on a hone that just needs stropping. Those are valid points and i respect and agree with that. But I don't see what that has to stop anyone from trying to better themselves and expand their knowledge and skill, in anything.

EisenFaust is giving you very good advice for sure! Learning to shave, strop properly,is definately fundamental to make this enjoyable, if you throw in honing as well, will probably be more frustrating then anything since you wont know what the problem is? is it my shaving? did i roll the edge while stropping? or my honing is not up to par? Just my opinion
And please read this:http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ch-2012-a.html

Originally Posted by Nonstickron

Now I see well respected guys on here always putting the breaks on people wanting to learn to hone and I simply just don't comprehend that. If I was currently trying to learn to shave with a straight, would you tell me not to also try to learn to surf, or oil paint, or to speak Japanese? No, of course not.

If you like, knock yourself out...ive noticed that seems to be prime candidate #1 as far as advice that most new people choose to ignore. But the point they are trying to make is, if you focus on one thing, you will make significant strides quickly on that thing. You focus on multiple things, you will slow your progress on all of them. If you were learning Japanese...first you would learn the characters and how to say words, then grammar, then sentences. Its systematic. It's much slower to learn a language by trying to write out complete sentences until you have a good handle on the individual components...kind of a learn to walk before you try to run, you know?