righty-o

well, i finally got around to shaving with my grand-dad's straight razor. a couple weeks back i had it "reconditioned", which really amounted to "sharpened" and "excuses made for why the rust couldn't be removed".

the place where i had it sharpened was supposed to be "the best" but they didn't put a razor's edge on it. they put a kitchen knife's edge at best, and even then it required pretty thorough stropping to realign the visibly misaligned edge.

the thing is a lot heavier than my other blades. the modern blades feel like steel feathers and this feels like an iron brick. shaves like one, too. did i mention they put a pretty crappy edge on it? i managed one pass north-to-south and tried a little south-to-north before i decided the SN wasn't doing any good.

i didn't cut myself but i also didn't get a great shave. if i want to use the shaver, it's going to need some honing. fortunately, i have a brand new whetstone, just waiting to be used. we'll see if i can turn this family heirloom (as of me) into a living artifact.

the handle, though somewhat degraded, is really cool. it's "whale's tooth", i.e. baleen. i wouldn't buy a shaver today made from animal parts (tortoise shell, ox horn, etc) because it's rather pretentious and needless, but i have no moral problems posessing a 80 year old family "treasure". and this thing surely is 80 years old if it's a day. probably older than that.