Thread: Howdy and a question about evaluating my blade

Greetings! Post #1 here.

I've long been a DE shaver, but it's time to try a straight. My great-grandfather's razor proved to be way too far gone to try to revive, so wisely or foolishly, I picked up what looked like a very, very clean and minimally used razor marked "J M Schmid and Son, Providence, RI, Germany." But where do I turn and what do I do to see if I'm actually right about the viability of this razor? Is there a good place to go to get help evaluating it?

much thanks!

You can start by posting some pics of it here. Then if it's in reasonable shape, you can either send it out to be honed/restored or you can get advice on doing the work yourself.

Welcome to the board.


Jordan

Welcome to SRP and straight shaving look here Member Services - Straight Razor Place Classifieds all these guys can help all you have to do is pick one, they are all members of this site. If you can post a pic.

It's unbelievable what some of the talent here can get hold of & turn into a beautiful & useful tool again, so with luck whatever you've picked up will be capable of being a great shaver. As said before, photo's would be good.

Thanks for the replies! Here are a few photos--my lens seems to distort things at this range, unfortunately, so I'll take another looking down along the edge in a minute. What I'm wondering about most is a very slight--at least it seems very slight to me, but on all these things I've got no experience!--unevenness in the line of the edge, hone wear, and some very, very small nicks on the edge that I can barely see unless I look very closely indeed. I just don't quite know what's normal. I know the scales are slightly warped, but that seems merely aesthetic.

Any advice is appreciated.

Wow! Thats in great shape. Definitely send it out to be honed.

Now that I take a few photos, this thing sure does look good...

looks like a nice little razor.
yeah the previous honer has been a bit heavy handed but that's not a problem. as far as chips go yes those are given on any blade that hasn't come straight from the factory or from somebody experienced at honing.

Yep, you've got a good one! Once honed it'll be great no doubt. Hope razors were made in Germany at the beginning of the 1900's, so i guess this may be related to them.

Excellent! Thank you all for the helpful replies. I'll most certainly be sending it out for honing soon.