What Straight Razor Did You Use Today?

Badger day - getting the factory edge up to snuff, finally

 

Who honed that for you??


..

 

I see you already gave it away. Not only do I remember I actually have the music. Not on vinyl but as HD files.

 

Hart Steel 6/8

 

King Pelican 14, cream was AoS Ocean Kelp lathered with a Rooney 1/3 Silvertip, and a splash of SMN lavender AS finished up the Easter shave.

 

Herder 25 7/8

TGS Pino alpestre + Pino silvestre AS

With a new 'plat a barbe'.

 

Short answer, the factory.

Elaborate analysis triggered by your question:
The strange look in the photo is due to playing with filters on my tablet combined with the low resolution available for posting on TSD. I enjoy messing around with filters and different light sources to see aspects of a razor that I can’t see with the naked eye (especially with my less than prime color vision).

So that is just the factory grind, enhanced by manipulating the image to bring out the history/orientation of the grind. I have used nothing other than my 50/100/200 diamond pasted balsa progression, linen, and leather to bring the edge up to fully ‘shave ready’. No stones, no films.

I just took a closer look at my current production straights, and a few of my vintage. I don’t but top end razors with a polished finish for the most part. All but my Legend Koroglu show some grind history. Boker, Aust, and Dovo a little less trace of coarse grinding. Golddachs and Klaas, a little more. My Wackers have a black oxide finish, but under that you can see the grind. The vintage razors vary a lot, but most show less obvious grind history than current production. Maybe more time spent on grinding and fewer aggressive synthetic abrasives back in the day? Or maybe it’s a Solingen thing?

Interesting where an enforced timeout and a loupe can lead. Or maybe not interesting.

 

The Filly outdid itself today. Noticeably smoother than expected and super close - top notch in all respects

Hot water preparation
AOS Lavender PSO
Savile Row 3824 Silvertip Badger
Castle Forbes Lavender Shave Cream
Filarmonica 13P 6/8
Castle Forbes Lavender After Shave Balm



Happy shaving - Karl

 

Went back to the Wacker today. The previous Wacker shave was on the heels of an irritating kamisori shave, so my confidence was wavering. Today’s shave restored full faith in Wacker’s reputation as one of the best.

No funny stuff with the image today. I don’t even think the camellia oil on the blade makes a visual impact on the non-show side. Has anyone heard the term ‘Canadian point’ applied to a spike point that has been softened right at the spike? That was a new one to me.

 

I was really glad you said that it was just the photography. The photo made the razor look like it had a "Hooked Heel".

.

 

Engels 5/8's. After having a fracture in my dominant hand for nearly two months of recovery, finally been able to get back to straight shaves.

 

Says the guy who named himself after a mythical trickster from Japanese folklore. The only thing less trustworthy than a tanuki is the fox... Oh wait! Never mind.

 

An early ERN...
Marked with C. Friedr Ern and the Eagle & Snake on the reverse. Not sure how much is original, as it has had some work, but it is still a solid 8/8+.

A blast of a shave with JR263 and Peg Leg Nichols.
Enjoy your shave.
Tom

 

So I did my research on ‘hooked heel’. As I move slowly ahead on restoring edges on my vintage razors (and inspecting razors in the wild) I have some more useful information. Thanks!

 

Easter Sunday shave

Royal No 1 6/8" japanese razor.

Dubl Duck Special No 1 Cordovan strop

MG handle with 24mm Elite high density silvertip

Long Rifle Soap Co 1776 soap and aftershave

So I had something interesting happen tonight. when I was shaking the water out of the brush after shaving the knot flew out. First time that has happened to me. Now letting everything fully dry and will glue the knot back in.

 

This morning was ‘The Battle of the Bergs’, two razors that have been difficult to get the butterknife edge to take. But the 6/8 frameback edge has arrived, and the 5/8 is very close, if not there. These razors are hard-tempered and do not wear on the hones very quickly. Cream was AoS Ocean Kelp, lathered with a Rooney Beehive 1, and Harris Pink was the AS.

One Jnat finishing combination is unlikely but works amazingly well on some razors, so I gave that a try and it worked. The hone is a huge, pale green stone of unknown mine on a fitted stand that a friend has dubbed ‘the boulder’, hard and extremely dense. The nagura are self-graded, and the right one is hard and incredibly fine - I used it as a finishing nagura, I did not use a tomo nagura. I discovered that it could finish exceedingly well when testing it, as none of the ones in that lot were graded for the layer, though it is stamped ¥1300, lol. All three are grit-rich stones.

 

Those are both stunning razors but I particularly like the carved scales.

 

@GAW9576 those are actually molded hard rubber scales that were fairly common in the early 1900s on Swedish and German razors. If you rub them with a cloth, you’ll smell the sulfur. Actually both of them are, the other set is just plain.

 

Stunning gear, Steve.

 

Thank you Joseph.