So I bought my first straight razor a couple of days ago. A used one, and I know there have been some warnings about learning to shave at the same time as learning how to hone, which is why I'm sending the razor to Birnando here on the forum so that he can hone it for me. However I do want to make the blade look real nice before I ship it of so that it will be in good condition after it has been honed!

This is what I have to work with

Name: IMG_7161.jpg Views: 200 Size: 36.6 KB

Name: IMG_7155.jpg Views: 200 Size: 33.2 KB

I will start of by rubbing the whole blade with autosol to see what is dirt and what is rust. After that I suspect that I will still have the rust left on the upper hollow ground on the edge of the back, a big rust-spot on the corner between the back and the point and in the grooves of the double stabilizing piece.

It does have two scrathes on one side of the blade aswell quite close to the cutting edge, but these look very shallow and I can only hint them when draging my finger nail over them.

So, to my question, seeing as the rust on the high hollow ground and the double stabilizing piece is not that bad, should I start with a higher sand papper grit, like the 400 or something and work my way up or should I go lower anyways from the start?

On the back I imagine I would have to start out pretty low as the rust is a bit harder on the back to the point (sorry for not having a photo of this).

And as for the scratches, since these are very shallow and the blade itself is very thin because of the hollow'nes, should it be sufficient to start out higher here too do you think?

I will keep this post updated running along with the restoration or touch up or whatever you wanna call it and I hope to be successfull in this!

The razor by the way is a CV Heljestrand No2.