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My First Custom SR - S.K. Collings & Co (aka Proserpine Razor Co)

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A couple of nice razors @LesC the family motto is a nice personal touch. Steve does quality work.
The Dutch point is not overly exaggerated like some manufacturers.
 
The olive wood looks great! I have a question though… I’ve heard that olive wood is slightly acidic and can cause reactions with carbon steel over time. Is there any truth to that?
 
Mistertaz said:
The olive wood looks great! I have a question though… I’ve heard that olive wood is slightly acidic and can cause reactions with carbon steel over time. Is there any truth to that?
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That's an interesting question. I would have thought just about all woods are potentially somewhat acidic, but presumably you have to take some measures to seal timber scales from moisture, so it shouldn't matter.
 
The only reason I ask is because the French pocket knife company, Opinel, offer stainless and carbon steel blades, but only offer the olive wood handled model in stainless for that reason.
 
Mistertaz said:
The only reason I ask is because the French pocket knife company, Opinel, offer stainless and carbon steel blades, but only offer the olive wood handled model in stainless for that reason.
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I have had many Opinel knives, the handles of which are cut from a solid chunk of wood, and the channel where the blade folds appears to be untreated. I guess it might be hard to do that cheaply enough, given the cost of the knives. But maybe I'm wrong, and olive wood might be more acidic. Or maybe there's some other corrosive compound in it... :unsure:
 
@Mistertaz Olive wood is one of the more popular materials for straight razor timber scales and has been so for many decades. I have never heard of anyone experiencing any adverse reaction between their olive wood scales and high carbon steel blades.
 
I have had mine for 11 months and seen no signs of acid attack. I oil all my blades after every use knowing that if I don't I can get rust spots; even on plastic scaled razors.

I think that's a wives tale, any manufacturer would take steps to prevent such an issue.
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Mistertaz said:
Interesting… It must be a fallacy then. Or perhaps specific to the carbon steel composition of Opinel knives.
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Quite possibly. There is nothing special about the steel Opinel uses. They are useful, cheap knives and meant to be easily replaceable if you make too much of a mess of them.
 
@Straight up rather than oiling my blades, I prefer to Renaissance wax them after stropping on 0.1μm pasted balsa. I do this because my SR's can spent a few weeks between uses.

I find Renaissance wax to be a much easier method to protect the steel. I don't have to clean it off before stropping/shaving. The very thin coating of wax that is on the bevel/edge, gets taken off with my pre-shave stropping. The wax is also beneficial to the strop leather.

A 65g tin of Renaissance wax should last you about 4k to 6k shaves.
 
rbscebu said:
@Straight up rather than oiling my blades, I prefer to Renaissance wax them after stropping on 0.1μm pasted balsa. I do this because my SR's can spent a few weeks between uses.

I find Renaissance wax to be a much easier method to protect the steel. I don't have to clean it off before stropping/shaving. The very thin coating of wax that is on the bevel/edge, gets taken off with my pre-shave stropping. The wax is also beneficial to the strop leather.

A 65g tin of Renaissance wax should last you about 4k to 6k shaves.
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Agreed, but the max time between my use is only 2 weeks. I also strop my oily blades on the strop and it likes it.
 
Straight up said:
Agreed, but the max time between my use is only 2 weeks. I also strop my oily blades on the strop and it likes it.
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If using oil, it is best to store your SR's edge-down. This helps prevent the oil from flowing away from the edge and reduction of protection there. If storing edge-down is not an option, petroleum jelly solves the problem.
 
rbscebu said:
If using oil, it is best to store your SR's edge-down. This helps prevent the oil from flowing away from the edge and reduction of protection there. If storing edge-down is not an option, petroleum jelly solves the problem.
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Yep, edge down. They are stored in boxes I made and sit in a similar fashion to all of your 7 day sets.
 
It's on its way! I should get it within the week.

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It looks exactly as I wanted. I will shave with it the very next morning after it arrives. If the edge is close to my acceptable keenness test result, I will shave with it without stropping to see how good Steve's honing is.

It has taken a bit longer to make than I expected. I'm putting that down to the Christmas/New Year break and Steve starting a new full-time job.
 
Reading this post has got me interested in buying a new custom razor. They look really good. I clicked on the link to the Prosperine website but it doesn't seem to work. Is there an email address for them?

cheers
Andrew
 
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