Sorry, fell victim to format and a slip of the typing fingers. The above describes my current stones and also have raw leather for strops. My gifted practice razor is a Gotta (Sheffield steel, ground in Germany). No brush, soaps etc. While I have looked at Japanese stones I'm still trying to come to grips with limited suppliers and name versus definition/grit equivalent.
I had a Gerber knife some years ago that was good in the bush but someone decided they needed it more than me. Recent Gerber suffer from 'Made un USA'. My Gerber machete rippled its' blade and fractured out a large chunk while track clearing?! Repaired now and will try again with different blade geometry. I have a range of knives mostly custom but working models and those would commonly be at arm shaving level (but not above skin). Kitchen knives too get worked on but the poor things are abused. Idle threats prevent the masses touching the japanese ones.
I should like to understand the quality of manufacture of straight razors - metallurgy, grinding and heat treatment if anyone had a good book they could recommend.
Jacobeen
