Thread: Complete beginner looking for some advice!

Hi guys, this is my first post on srp regarding my first straight razor.
I recently bought a "Kain-Abel" razor on eBay, and despite reading a lot of threads on this site beforehand I got carried away buy what I thought is a low price and bid for it.
The razor arrived and it is has black rust along the shaving edge of the blade. I'm wondering if its repairable and if so what the best way to do this would be.
Also I would be interested to know what more experience people have heard about kain-Abel razors, I tried googling it but couldn't find much. Do I have a terrible razor?!
Thanks for any help in advance, it'll be much appreciated. I have attached two photos showing the rust.

Welcome to SRP. It's a Solingen blade so you're ok there. The only way to tell if it'd be useable would be to clean the rust off using something like 00 steel wool or even a mild metal polish like MAAS or Mothers and then hone it to see how that edge holds up. On the one side it looks like it could be honed past but hard to say on the other.

Hi and welcome to SRP!

Like Catrentshaving said, try to clean it of with something that´s not too rough to the blade. Like some wet sandpaper. But if you actually want to know if you have bought a decent straight razor that you can shave with you should hone it and see if it takes a edge that you can shave with.

That razor will need to be honed past the rust. The good news is that it appears to have enough blade to get to good steel. What you will need to do is clean it up and send it to someone who is proficient at honing. What I would do is freehand it on a diamond stone to get past the rusted steel, then take it to regular hones. Sounds easy enough, but it's not something that I would recommend for a person learning to hone. You would need magnification to ensure you have honed to good healthy steel.

Where are you from? Put in your member information a general location of where you are from, as we are an international community. What other shave gear do you have? If you will show me a pic of your brush, strop, and shave soap I'll (if you are from the US) hone it up for you at the cost of return priority shipping...which is $5.25 IIRC.

Welcome. As a restorer ans straight shaver i feel (at least for me) this would have been a little ambitious for a first project. But since you have it in hand you may want to take some 400 grit sand paper to it untill all the active rust is gone. Once you see bare metal on the edge take a good look at it. Does the pitting go so deep you will never be able to set a smooth bevel? Once you figure that out go to 600 grit sand paper, 1000 grit and then finally 1500. I usually go to 2000 then 3000 but this may be over kill for you. Polish with mothers or other metal polish then send it out to get honed.

option #2- buy something shave ready from classifieds.

I would like to see that blade cleaned up...... Do it!