I bought a shave-ready vintage straight a while back from a very reputable vendor. When it arrived I noted that it looked like it had originally been a spike edge but that a previous owner had ground off the edges so as to make it more like a round-edge. Since I'm a n00b to straights that was fine by me - I like my earlobes attached. This is the razor
Due to not knowing what the hell I was at with the stropping I made it very blunt very quickly and it needed a proper honing. I took it to a barber in the centre of town who sharpens straight-razors. This barbershop has been on that site since the 1950s and I'm reliably informed that the barber has been there for a good portion of that time (possible all of that time to look at him). I infer it was his fathers shop before it was his. Or maybe it was always his. He was busy when I called in so I left it with a more-junior member of the staff. I was talking with him today on the phone and he is not-so-keen on this razor and he says there is something wrong with it and he doesn't think its worth saving. I'm fairly certain he is talking about the corners being ground off it.
I should mention that the other barber started off with the wrong impression that I'd found this in an attic or something and told me that the senior would have a look and tell me what was what. I corrected him that this thing was shave-ready when it arrived and that it was only my bad stropping that had made it blunt. When it first arrived to me it was well-able to give me knicks and scratches. But after only twenty shaves (15 of which were with terrible stropping technique beforehand) it was so blunt that I was in little danger of accidentally cutting myself. I don't know if he passed that along to the senior guy so I suspect that the senior guy may be proceeding from the false premise that I don't know if this is worth shaving and also he thinks that I'm as green as grass.
As far as I know grinding the corners off the blade shouldn't make any difference to the leading-edge of the blade - does anybody know any differently?
My suspicion is that this guy knows how to shave and he knows how to sharpen a blade but doesn't know that much theory of blades and when he sees the altered blade he's thinking that it is damaged and that I should toss it.
Due to not knowing what the hell I was at with the stropping I made it very blunt very quickly and it needed a proper honing. I took it to a barber in the centre of town who sharpens straight-razors. This barbershop has been on that site since the 1950s and I'm reliably informed that the barber has been there for a good portion of that time (possible all of that time to look at him). I infer it was his fathers shop before it was his. Or maybe it was always his. He was busy when I called in so I left it with a more-junior member of the staff. I was talking with him today on the phone and he is not-so-keen on this razor and he says there is something wrong with it and he doesn't think its worth saving. I'm fairly certain he is talking about the corners being ground off it.
I should mention that the other barber started off with the wrong impression that I'd found this in an attic or something and told me that the senior would have a look and tell me what was what. I corrected him that this thing was shave-ready when it arrived and that it was only my bad stropping that had made it blunt. When it first arrived to me it was well-able to give me knicks and scratches. But after only twenty shaves (15 of which were with terrible stropping technique beforehand) it was so blunt that I was in little danger of accidentally cutting myself. I don't know if he passed that along to the senior guy so I suspect that the senior guy may be proceeding from the false premise that I don't know if this is worth shaving and also he thinks that I'm as green as grass.
As far as I know grinding the corners off the blade shouldn't make any difference to the leading-edge of the blade - does anybody know any differently?
My suspicion is that this guy knows how to shave and he knows how to sharpen a blade but doesn't know that much theory of blades and when he sees the altered blade he's thinking that it is damaged and that I should toss it.
