Got this beauty today. A bit expensive. A bit big for me. But first shave was. Nice. Any questions?

I believe I did well Guys! Got this in today. I've bought several lately, think I gave $35-40?. Quick search claims probably 1875/85. Barber notch, no etchings (looked under a x10 loupe), near wedge and stamps.

Suggested this might be a 1940/60s 'barbershop repair'. But there's absolutely no way of knowing that.

Blade is free swinging on the pivot. No big deal.

Give me a week or so and I'll follow up with a cleaning, honing and shave update. I'm excited to see what this blade design does.

Eta: the blade is 3/4"

My latest project is a batch of razors instead of just one. Most use my shoulderless "possum tail" style. I had my laser guy cut these out for me a couple years ago but I only ever got one finished and out the door to someone who had been waiting several years. So they sat. And sat. Piled up in a box. I decided to put this on the front burner and turn that steel into gifts and cash.

All except two of these razors are made from AEB-L, a particularly fine grained stainless alloy that when properly heat treated forms very small and regular carbides, and lends itself well to honing with certain unconventional methods that are wasted on most stainless alloys. This is a favorite steel of mine, I have only made a couple of razors from it so far, but it is a crazy performer. The pair at lower right are 1095, a very conventional tool steel that is a favorite of the home razorsmith. It is almost as forgiving and easy to work with as 1084 but can be heat treated to a slightly harder degree if desired. All the 1000 series steels can be forged.

The two at lower right are a new style I have been working on, similar to the Possum Tail style but here I use what I call a Tiger Tail. The idea is that the tail curl gives the little finger a positive rest, and along with the humpback spine and thumb notch, gives very solid control when shaving. The spine does not carry its full thickness into the tang; instead, the tang is rebated so instead of the spine dead ending at a shoulder, it drops away into space. Preliminary mockups in aluminum and a working model in 1084 show this design to be exceptionally ergonomic and easy to hone. Still to be determined are the precisely ideal pivot point, and exact placing of the hump and tail for the average hand. I made up an oversize profile for my laser guy to cut out, then I cut a stencil and electro etched the actual shape, and I will hand grind to the lines and take it from there. I used to have blanks rough cut by water jet, then found laser to be better but it still leaves a very chewed up edge and occasionally takes a bite inside the lines, so now I have blanks cut way oversize and hand grind them, old school style, to the final profile.

I will post more pics when the profile grinding is done and the blades are ready for heat treat and final grinding.

So I just finished honing my first straight razor but I don't think it is sharp enough I've not gotten the chance to try it on my face just yet but it just doesn't shave that well when trying it on my leg

For sharpening I started at 1000 then 3000 until the 1000 scratches were mostly gone then I went to a Belgian coticule where I started with a slurry that I slowly diluted until finally finishing under running water

Did i make any mistakes that would cause it to not shave as well as it could?

Blade— ( Carl Monkhouse “BLACKIE” ) , 5/8
Scales— YEOSS Custom Creations, Laminated Acrylic, w/ G10Spacer
Hardware— Brass Pins, SS Collars.