A few months ago my wife bought me a frameback Wostenholm and Sons straight. I sent it out to get honed and have been using it ever since. I posted pictures of it when I got it and asked B&B members if they thought I should do a full restore or just leave it as is. I ended up agreeing with the majority and only had it sharpened. But a part of me really wanted a "flashy" vintage razor. Then I thought, how cool would it be if I had an original frameback and a modernized one in a custom display/travel case? So I started looking for a 2nd frameback that I could do a full restore with. I'm talking mirror finish with abalone and silver scales. And after hours and hours of looking, over weeks, I found one on the bay last week:
The auction ended at midnight the day I was to fly back home from a business trip early that morning. But even getting a mere 4 hours sleep before a full day of travel didn't discourage me to do what I could to get this blade. And, happy to say, I was able to buy it and can now look into getting it spiffed up.
A long winded intro into before the real story, sorry. Last night I put my new razor next to it's new partner and laughingly told my wife I was glad that razors couldn't get jealous and take advantage of our trust in them and retaliate as we shave with them.
This morning I showered and proceeded to have what I can only hope will be the most violent shave in my life. I was in a hurry and, while normally I would shave with a DE when in a hurry, I decided to just use my straight. I lathered my face, and stropped my blade and went at it. Two short passes on my right sideburn (I repeat, only two passes) I dropped my razor! I didn't even try to catch it. I quickly moved my foot so it wouldn't land on my foot. I looked down in horror and saw my razor on the floor. I quickly picked it up and anxiously examined it to see if I had cracked or damaged the blade in any way. As I was examining it I noticed in the back of my mind that my foot was aching. I didn't pay attention to the pain, though, as my only concern was the blade. I rinsed it, carefully dried it off and looked at it very closely. After a minute or so I was relieved to see there was no damage to the razor at all.
When I remembered that my foot was aching I looked down. And Holy Crap!! Right away I saw that I was not fast enough when I moved my foot. I was standing in a very large pool of blood! Where the blood was coming from (the toe next to the big toe on my right foot) made it look like I was missing a decent size chunk of my toe. The large blood pool briefly made me think my toe was missing entirely. I cleaned up the mess and my foot. I didn't bother examining my toe because my face was all lathered up and I wanted to finish up my shave and continue getting ready. So I stuck a huge wad of bathroom tissue between my toes, stropped the blade again and continued shaving.
Of course, at this point I was a little shaky. I finished my first pass and started a second. Right away I slit my ear really good. Not even the ear lobe. Somehow I managed to cut the little flap in the middle of my ear. A good cut that was almost on par with my toe. Disgusted with myself I pressed on. Not 30 seconds later I slit my chin. And while this cut was not as bad as the other two, it was as bad as any previous cut I had given myself straight shaving up until this morning. I decided then that shaving was not as important as it was ten minutes earlier. I rinsed off my face, cleaned my razor, brush and scuttle.
Then I looked down to determine what I should do with my foot. By now the tissue ball was completely red and had long since lost it's absorbency capabilities. As evident by the new, yet slightly smaller, pool of blood I was standing in. I finally properly cleaned my wound and examined it. I have the cleanest of cuts that's along the right side of the toe nail. It's depth is about a third of the way into my toe from the top and a good bit into my toe from the front. I think it cut the top my toe as I lifted my foot and continued slicing as it rolled over the front of my toe as it fell and I pulled back.
I have a limp but I also still have a toe. There's a pretty good flap of skin that will leave a memory and scar that will always remind me not to shave hurriedly. At least that's what I'll tell myself I learned from this when I start to think about jealous razors betraying our trust and exacting revenge.
The auction ended at midnight the day I was to fly back home from a business trip early that morning. But even getting a mere 4 hours sleep before a full day of travel didn't discourage me to do what I could to get this blade. And, happy to say, I was able to buy it and can now look into getting it spiffed up.
A long winded intro into before the real story, sorry. Last night I put my new razor next to it's new partner and laughingly told my wife I was glad that razors couldn't get jealous and take advantage of our trust in them and retaliate as we shave with them.
This morning I showered and proceeded to have what I can only hope will be the most violent shave in my life. I was in a hurry and, while normally I would shave with a DE when in a hurry, I decided to just use my straight. I lathered my face, and stropped my blade and went at it. Two short passes on my right sideburn (I repeat, only two passes) I dropped my razor! I didn't even try to catch it. I quickly moved my foot so it wouldn't land on my foot. I looked down in horror and saw my razor on the floor. I quickly picked it up and anxiously examined it to see if I had cracked or damaged the blade in any way. As I was examining it I noticed in the back of my mind that my foot was aching. I didn't pay attention to the pain, though, as my only concern was the blade. I rinsed it, carefully dried it off and looked at it very closely. After a minute or so I was relieved to see there was no damage to the razor at all.
When I remembered that my foot was aching I looked down. And Holy Crap!! Right away I saw that I was not fast enough when I moved my foot. I was standing in a very large pool of blood! Where the blood was coming from (the toe next to the big toe on my right foot) made it look like I was missing a decent size chunk of my toe. The large blood pool briefly made me think my toe was missing entirely. I cleaned up the mess and my foot. I didn't bother examining my toe because my face was all lathered up and I wanted to finish up my shave and continue getting ready. So I stuck a huge wad of bathroom tissue between my toes, stropped the blade again and continued shaving.
Of course, at this point I was a little shaky. I finished my first pass and started a second. Right away I slit my ear really good. Not even the ear lobe. Somehow I managed to cut the little flap in the middle of my ear. A good cut that was almost on par with my toe. Disgusted with myself I pressed on. Not 30 seconds later I slit my chin. And while this cut was not as bad as the other two, it was as bad as any previous cut I had given myself straight shaving up until this morning. I decided then that shaving was not as important as it was ten minutes earlier. I rinsed off my face, cleaned my razor, brush and scuttle.
Then I looked down to determine what I should do with my foot. By now the tissue ball was completely red and had long since lost it's absorbency capabilities. As evident by the new, yet slightly smaller, pool of blood I was standing in. I finally properly cleaned my wound and examined it. I have the cleanest of cuts that's along the right side of the toe nail. It's depth is about a third of the way into my toe from the top and a good bit into my toe from the front. I think it cut the top my toe as I lifted my foot and continued slicing as it rolled over the front of my toe as it fell and I pulled back.
I have a limp but I also still have a toe. There's a pretty good flap of skin that will leave a memory and scar that will always remind me not to shave hurriedly. At least that's what I'll tell myself I learned from this when I start to think about jealous razors betraying our trust and exacting revenge.
Be careful buddy wishing speedy recovery
