Straight Razors

hitemfrank

I got a razor at the start of last week that was fairly covered in rust. I decided to clean it up a bit by hand sanding it. So after roughly 6 hours I decided it was good enough i.e I'd had enough basically. At some point I might return to this razor and do more sanding to try get a mirror finish on it.



It's a shame the blade is warped slighty as it's making honing a bit awkward. I honed it before I sanded it so I know it can take a nice edge.

I think after this I rehone my razors that have no warping or smiling edges to them. Should be a relaxing thing to do after honing this one.

MadsL

Hey, very nice early George Butler - good piece of steel I would say. Very easy to see the problems even from looking at that bevel.

Regarding honing before restoration, I would seriously caution you not to do this, or then seriously dull the edge afterwards. I often tape the edge when handling other areas of the razor just in case. Hand sanding a honed edge sounds very risky unless you have some sort of jig.

That said - if you are bored sanding and want to spin in the tumbler - thats always open to you. Don't fear for the scales (my unpinning batting average has improved a bit recently) it can be tumbled pinned, I usually just tape up the scales and let it tumble solo.

hitemfrank

The bevel not even set in that picture as I gave up last night.

I made sure to dull the edge before I started sanding. I ran it a fair few times over a glass to make sure. The main reason for honing it before I started any sanding was to check the black spot on the edge near the heel. I wanted to make sure there was decent steel there before I spent any time on the razor.

I might post it to you in the morning and have you take it apart and throw it in the tumbler. There is some rust around the pivot pin that I can't get to that the tumbler should take care of.

The scales need to a soak in some neatsfoot oil and maybe a sand at high grit. There are a few nicks in them so it's either put a bit of work into them and see how they turn out or just replace them. So it'll need to be taken apart anyway if I decide to do anything with them.

I think I'll have a look and see if Revisor or The Invisible Edge have any scales that take my fancy.

123 sore

Excellent, a thread on straight razors! I picked up an old one about a year ago and have been searching for a local honing service ever since. Anyone know of a honing service in Ireland?

MadsL

*cough*

send me a PM of what you want done. Just send me postage, no charge for honing.

hitemfrank

I was going to offer to do it but I need some more practice. I've been slacking off on my practice honing. Think I'll try rehoning some of my razors over the next few days.


Madsl, I plan to send the George Butler to you soon for a trip in the tumbler. I'm gonna order some scales from Revisor and some send them to you at the same time so I'm hoping you might put them on it for me

MadsL

I was going to offer to do it but I need some more practice. I've been slacking off on my practice honing. Think I'll try rehoning some of my razors over the next few days.


Madsl, I plan to send the George Butler to you soon for a trip in the tumbler. I'm gonna order some scales from Revisor and some send them to you at the same time so I'm hoping you might put them on it for me

Sure happy to do all that if I can. Make it quick though as I'm off the US as soon as the Embassy get my visa processed. The wife has a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As I lost mine last week, I'm another one on the boat.

Might sell my tumbler if you are interested

run_Forrest_run

MadsL wrote: »

I'm off the US as soon as the Embassy get my visa processed. The wife has a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Might sell my tumbler if you are interested

just keep away from the meth dude

MadsL

I hear "Breaking Bad" is a good TV show

I'll keep you posted on the reality.

hitemfrank

MadsL wrote: »

Sure happy to do all that if I can. Make it quick though as I'm off the US as soon as the Embassy get my visa processed. The wife has a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As I lost mine last week, I'm another one on the boat.

Might sell my tumbler if you are interested

I'll post it to you tomorrow. The scales that are on it are in decent enough shape to last for a fair while yet - they are nice and tight so I think I'll pass on getting new scales for it for the moment.

Do you want to try out the Revisor before you head out west? If so I'll stick it in the post with the George Butler.


So with you leaving my options are;

• stop buying stuff from ebay that needs a polish
• continue buying from ebay and get to like hand sanding
• continue buying and get a tumbler from 'somewhere' (as well as some other stuff for basic scales repair/replacement)

If I stop buying stuff it may solve my issue of rapidly decreasing storage space. I could of course just get more storage space

MadsL

So with you leaving my options are;

stop buying stuff from ebay that needs a polish
continue buying from ebay and get to like hand sanding
continue buying and get a tumbler from 'somewhere' (as well as some other stuff for basic scales repair/replacement)

Sorry buddy,

Option 4 is to increase your postage bill

Would appreciate a go with the Revisor though...did you hone it?

hitemfrank

Oooh a 4th option...

I've been just giving it a touch up when needed since I got it rehoned in March, I think it was March anyway. The factory edge wasn't quite comfortable enough.

I should point out that I rarely do an ATG pass, as I can get away without out doing it, so I can't comment on it's level of comfort ATG. Feel free to rehone it though.

There is a watermark on the blade already from one of my first uses with it. I've left it there as a reminder to myself to make sure my razors are completely dry before putting them away. No watermarks have appeared on any of my other razors since so it seems to be working.

The watermark on my Dovo doesn't count as that happened in the time I was making 1 pass in a shave. Wiped the lather off the blade and there it was :mad:

hitemfrank

hitemfrank wrote: »

I could of course just get more storage space

I'm gonna need more storage space :rolleyes:

Just won this http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290612547362

hitemfrank

So MadsL, did the razors arrive this morning?

MadsL

They did indeed; I'm up to my eyes at the moment though..but will get cracking today.

My god though that Revisor is gorgeous, had a shave with it yesterday and it's amazing. Edge is a tiny bit crisp for my taste but a damn fine shave. Cheers for that.

hitemfrank

Take as long as you need with them. Another straight arrived yesterday morning which honed up very nicely so I think I'll be using that one for a little while.

It's an 11/16 Wagner & Lange. The only information I could find on the makers is from an article in Time Magazine from 1949. An even that has very little info on them.

I think it might be a razor that I put a bit of money into for a restore.

MadsL

I was watching that too. Forgot to bid, you got a bargain at that price; that should go to Maximillan in Vegas - it would look stunning buffed and in custom G10 scales.

The Irish reference is interesting.

Lange's shop was 70% rebuilt, and he had finally been able to fill the last of his back orders. To Barber Charles Liddy of Castleblayney, Ireland, who had sent in a paid-up order in 1939, Lange shipped six new Solingen razors. Included in the shipment was a note: Wagner & Lange, it said, were sorry about the unavoidable delay.

hitemfrank

Lets just say I had my bid set at much more than I got it for, which of course I'm happy with. Thankfully the pitting right on the edge was gone in a set of half strokes on the 1K Chosera.

I think it probably will go to Max when I get the money for it (I payed for a Japenese frameback the other day). I'm not too sure what I want for scales so I may give him free rein on them. Although there is something about abalone scales that I really like....


I like the fact that the company actually filled their orders from 5 years previous and issued an apology. Somehow I don't think you'd get that nowadys.

MadsL

Nice rock by the way...

hitemfrank

Thank you Sir! I'm starting to get the hang on if now.

I'm using the fact that I'm learning on that stone as justification for picking up more straights recently. I think I'll try stop buying straights for now and get to honing on the straights I use everyday.

hitemfrank

MadsL, any update on the George Butler?

Did you end up rehoning the Revisor to your preferred edge?

Laurenisme

Hi all,

I'm sorry if i might be jumping into your thread but im not too sure where to post this and ask for advice.

I don't know anything about razor's being a woman and all but i would like a bit of advice. I want to buy my boyfriend for christmas a beginner kit for using a cut throat razor. I would like to buy Irish, (i realise that you can buy a whole set on ebay with everything for €30). But anyway my budget is €50 for the lot so I am trying to get basic but yet not too basic. I found two cut throat razor on Shaving.ie but i really don't know if there is a propper difference in the blade, as the only thing that i can see that is different is the handle, one of the razor's has a tortoise effect handle and €22.95 where the other one has some kind of metal handle and is €26.95. Both blades seem to be steel. http://www.shaving.ie/categories/Straight-Razors/Straights/

So if it the only thing that is really different would buying the tortoise shell handle be a bad idea? Like do you put a lot of preassure on the handle which might cause a plastic one to break?

Another question they both say that a strop/honing stone is not needed does that mean that they might not be as good quality compared to one that you use a strop with?

Also the one for €22.95 says that you can buy extra blades with it, i assume these extra blades could also be used with the one for €26.95. Would it be a good idea to buy these blades to as part of the gift or the blade should really last ages and so wouldn't need to?

For anyone interested the rest of the set i am going to put together is the brush, shaving soap and a bar of body soap, handmade in ireland and all for €19.95. http://drksoap.com/gifting/mens-grooming-set/

So any advice on which razor makes better sense would be greatly appreciated.

And sorry again if i am butting in.

Lauren

hitemfrank

Lauren,

You're not butting in at all (it's not exactly a hive of activity here anyway).

Those two razors are not 'proper' straight razors as they take double edge razor blades that you split in half. They are known as 'shavettes'. This means that you don't need to strop or hone the razor. So less maintenance is the real advantage of them over a straight razor. However, the blades it uses are actually sharper than a 'proper' straight razor so can be a little bit more unforgiving - I haven't actually used one so this is just what I've read on them.

The only difference between the two razors on the site are the scales (handles) so it's just a case of picking which you prefer. Useless he does something reallly wrong the scales shouldn't fail.

The blades they use can be bought really cheaply online. You can buy 100 blades for €13 on shaving.ie and they will probably last the entire year when using a safety razor. So if the 100 were to be used in one the the shavette's it could be nearly 2 years before you need to buy more. I would suggest not buying a years supply just in case he doesn't stick with it.

Either a shavette or a straight razor will deliver a very nice shave once the technique has been learned. They probably wont be quick shaves though.


As for the rest of your kit. I haven't used that brush so can't comment on it. Rob (Dr. K) is a really nice guy to deal with so he could probably tell you more about it.
I have used the soap and it smells great. I found it easy enough to build a good lather with although I have heard from someone who couldn't get a lather from it.

You can pick up some Palmolive shave cream or a shave stick in Tesco and these are really good and really cheap. The stick should be under €1 and the cream is about €3.50 I think.


Don't buy one of these kits from ebay. Chances are the razor will be garbage (that's if you are talking about the kits with straight razors not shavettes).

Hopefully I've covered everything. If you have any more questions ask away or send me a PM.

Cheers,

Keith

Laurenisme

Hi Kieth,

Thanks for getting back to me it is much appreciated. He has been talking about getting a razor like this for ages so i don't think the length of time it takes to shave would be a huge problem.

I just have to decide whether i think no having an actual cut throat razor would bother him, as it will be that bit harder to learn the technique and the fact that you have to buy blades for it rather than just sharpening them yourself.

Is a bowl neccassary for using the shaving soap?

Lauren

emmet the rover

a mug is fine its what i use. its a good idea to leave the mug, bowl siting in hot water for a few mins to warm it up to keep your lather warm.

i would suggest getting a good badger hair brush to make yout lather

hitemfrank

Laurenisme wrote: »

Hi Kieth,

Thanks for getting back to me it is much appreciated. He has been talking about getting a razor like this for ages so i don't think the length of time it takes to shave would be a huge problem.

I just have to decide whether i think no having an actual cut throat razor would bother him, as it will be that bit harder to learn the technique and the fact that you have to buy blades for it rather than just sharpening them yourself.

Is a bowl neccassary for using the shaving soap?

Lauren

The technique used for each is the same.

It's a little difficult to describe but with a straight razor you can sort of sense when the blade is going to cut you so you can adjust. From what I've read the one with the disposable blades doesn't give the same feeling.

Once you get the technique correct it shouldn't be an issue anymore. But pick him up a styptic pencil just incase. They sting a little but are great for closing cuts.

Sharpening straight razors can be a fairly expensive thing initially but once learned it should pay for itself in the long run as you're not sending the razor to someone to do it for you. There are many routes you could go down for sharpening them so for now don't worry about it - you could always send it out if it needs a sharpen until he's ready to start honing himself.

For roughly €50 you could get a shave ready razor, a strop and some sharpening compound from here. The thing is, it won't be a new razor and may have some cosmetic issues but you can be guarenteed it will be sharp enough to shave. It might be the cheapest way of getting a proper straight razor that you can be sure is sharp enough.


A bowl is not really that necessary. You can just put the soap in any container/coffee mug and swirl the brush on it and then on the face and make lather that way. Some people go from swirling the brush on the soap into another bowl and making lather in that before putting it on the face. It's personal preference really.

ladhrann

Tis a fair course of experience alright. I found a straight in a drawer at home and sent it off to be repinned and cleaned by a guy in the UK. For £35 i had an heirloom restored. As I'm into kitchen knives I already had the stones. Its a really close shave. Better than any MachArse I ever had and a fraction of the price.

Amalgam

A strange ad altogether, doesn't really gel well and somewhat menacing.

Sadistic use of a straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryXcEJHKQWI

hitemfrank

They should have actually made that a sharp piece of steel and let him cut the bejaysus our of his face

ladhrann

On the topics of straights and their maintenance, does anyone know of a sharpening class anywhere in Ireland. Just wondering if everyone here is an autodidact?