Very lucky day for a new guy (pics)

[gregorykicks]

So I've been wanting to get into straight shaving, and have been reading the boards and the guides for a couple weeks. Last week I began my search for an affordable, usable, straight. After a few antique stores with one or two broken or over priced razors I wizened up and went to talk to my old barber. He said he had a few, just give him some time to find him.

Well yesterday I went back to see him and he had this little gem for me.

He insisted that I have the razor for free and I left with quite a bit of advice, especially the "be careful" and "you'll get cut"

Well I was obviously excited and asked my dad if he knew anyone who may be able to sharpen it, as I had no way of doing so. He knew of a guy who sharpened pretty much anything and even made his own knives in town, so we went to see him.

He was excited to see me interested in straight shaving and showed me a few techniques and GAVE me these...

This stone is crazy hard and smooth as glass... he said it was Arkansas stone

well I had to go to work soon after I got home, but once I got home I sat down with a piece of 1200grit sand paper and began to clean what I could off the blade. About two or three hours later I also gave it a few passes on a knife sharpening stone to get some pits out of the edge of the blade. I still need to work a lot on it. Especially the shaving edge, but I thought you all would like to see how lucky I was yesterday. I really need a strop and paddle strop, but am waiting for Tony Miller to open shop back. If you guys have any suggestions on how to get the metal looking better let me know. I was going to try some polish soon. Here are pics after the cleaning attempt.

I'm pretty positive this is stainless because the blade was in fairly good shape and seems to be pretty hard based on my sanding experience.

 

[zippo]

You certainly scored well ,The hone that is all white ,did the fellow tell you what type of stone it is ,I have one that looks similar and feels like marble ,all I know is that the hone I have is a natural stone and was quarried in southern England,I have been trying to find out what it is .
I know its the best finishing hone I have bar none
Once you get the razor sharp you shouldn`t have any trouble learning ,just go slow and with the grain to start with then teach yourself to use both hands
Good luck
Kind regards Peter

 

[Ulysses]

Sounds like a great day! The razor is starting to clean up already, but check out mdunn's thread on restoring straights if you haven't seen it before.

 

[Samouraï]

awesome story. goes to show how nice straight razor/sharpening enthusiasts can be--sounds like they should join B&B.

 

[gregorykicks]

Sounds like a great day! The razor is starting to clean up already, but check out mdunn's thread on restoring straights if you haven't seen it before.

Thanks! Looks like I'm babying the blade too much and need to get rougher on the grit.

 

[Dharion]

What a nice blade! Let me stress it's n o t stainless. It's just acting that way and if you want to stash it away for more than a day coat it with WD40/Ballistol.. or do want it to hit with sandpaper again?

Straight razor shaving is fun and if you have more questions feel free to ask. We need more straight users here

 

[gregorykicks]

What a nice blade! Let me stress it's n o t stainless. It's just acting that way and if you want to stash it away for more than a day coat it with WD40/Ballistol.. or do want it to hit with sandpaper again?

Straight razor shaving is fun and if you have more questions feel free to ask. We need more straight users here

Thanks for letting me know about that! It still hasn't shown any signs of rusting since I've started cleaning it, but there is some oil on it from my fingers so that may help. It's magnetic too, but that's not a definitive test.

Is there any reason it's acting like stainless and isn't? Is it just a really hard carbon steel?

You certainly scored well ,The hone that is all white ,did the fellow tell you what type of stone it is ,I have one that looks similar and feels like marble ,all I know is that the hone I have is a natural stone and was quarried in southern England,I have been trying to find out what it is .
I know its the best finishing hone I have bar none
Once you get the razor sharp you shouldn`t have any trouble learning ,just go slow and with the grain to start with then teach yourself to use both hands
Good luck
Kind regards Peter

I really have no idea where the stone is from. It's obviously real stone not a synthetic one like a Norton, and I think it's marble.. it feels like it is. It is a really fine grit and I'm sure once I get the hang of honing it will treat me very well.


I've done some more reading on restoration, and am going to remove the pins today. I REALLLY hope I don't break the scales because I really like them. I'm going to go to Hobby Lobby and look for some 1/16th brass or NiAg rod and #0 washers to re-pin it with. I'm not rushing this though because I will still need a strop. I may end up buying one of the crappy razors I found in an antique shop just to practice honing on and try and send this one to Ambrose to hone for the first time.. It's not rough or really dull.. I just think a proper hone would go a long way towards success in my first shave.

Besides... if restoring this one goes well I'll just restore the other one I get and learn about scaling Might as well go deeper into the hobby. I'm really enjoying myself so far.

 

[Dharion]

Some sorts of steel are prone to rusting while others aren't. Getting a carbon steel straight which is not prone to rusting makes you a lot luckier than getting a plain stainless one. For a beginner I've always felt honing non-stainless str8s is much easier than a stainless str8.

Although if it even is a stainless str8 then it's not bad luck either. It still can be easy to hone up and shave well. What I've said is a trend not a rule.

 

[gregorykicks]

Some sorts of steel are prone to rusting while others aren't. Getting a carbon steel straight which is not prone to rusting makes you a lot luckier than getting a plain stainless one. For a beginner I've always felt honing non-stainless str8s is much easier than a stainless str8.

Although if it even is a stainless str8 then it's not bad luck either. It still can be easy to hone up and shave well. What I've said is a trend not a rule.

I just keep getting more lucky
I figured since I got it from my barber that it had to be a pretty good functional razor.

 

[cityjim]

Nice score buddy .


cityjim

 

[DunEdinRanger]

Very nice score on all fronts, and great photos. Thanks for posting!

 

[ambrose]

Its exciting isn't it!!

 

[varanid]

You certainly scored well ,The hone that is all white ,did the fellow tell you what type of stone it is ,I have one that looks similar and feels like marble ,all I know is that the hone I have is a natural stone and was quarried in southern England,I have been trying to find out what it is .
I know its the best finishing hone I have bar none
Once you get the razor sharp you shouldn`t have any trouble learning ,just go slow and with the grain to start with then teach yourself to use both hands
Good luck
Kind regards Peter

Concerning you're South of England stone, do you live in the UK or not? I ask because there was an supposedly excellent oilstone that was mined near Tavistock, but which was unavailable in the trade. I would have thought given the stones limited distribution, save for one small sample package sent to London, it might be reasonable to assume that if you aren't in the UK it would be unlikely for you to have this particular type of stone. It may not get you any closer to identifying you're particular stone, but at least you'd be eliminating one possibility.

You can read about another stone mined in the South of England here http://www.blackdown-hills.net/~parishchests/blackborough/index.htm this stone was much more widely distributed, however, as a scythe sharpening stone it probably isn't a very fine finisher.

Regards,
Stew

 

[zippo]

Thanks for that,I`m actually in Australia and did a bit of horse trading with a mate in the pistol club I`m a member in ,he is a chippie by trade and had two of them ,he used it for putting the final polish on old plane blades etc,I also picked up an antique two sided shave mirror,the type with two different levels of magnification. The interesting thing about this one is the reflective faces are highly polished metal. Getting back to the stone, he horse traded them both himself from an old English bloke and he was told they were natural ,quarried in Southern England and work a treat ,that part I can confirm
Thanks again for the info ,I tell you what, that sounds about right ,its the closest description to date, you may have hit the proverbial nail right between the eyes so to speak
Thanks again, much appreciated
Kind regards Peter

 

[varanid]

Thanks for that,I`m actually in Australia and did a bit of horse trading with a mate in the pistol club I`m a member in ,he is a chippie by trade and had two of them ,he used it for putting the final polish on old plane blades etc,I also picked up an antique two sided shave mirror,the type with two different levels of magnification. The interesting thing about this one is the reflective faces are highly polished metal. Getting back to the stone, he horse traded them both himself from an old English bloke and he was told they were natural ,quarried in Southern England and work a treat ,that part I can confirm
Thanks again for the info ,I tell you what, that sounds about right ,its the closest description to date, you may have hit the proverbial nail right between the eyes so to speak
Thanks again, much appreciated
Kind regards Peter

If you're intereted, the Devonshire Oilstone is given a cursory mention in this article http://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/workshop/Turning-Mechanical/Hone-Slates.html Whilst it doesn't give a description of the stone itself, it does mention it being used as a finisher for plane irons, much like your friend used it for.

Kindest regards,
Stew