Some of these replies suffer from tunnel vision.
The article is written for an audience that is not necessarily knee-deep into straight razor
afficionadism. I think the average reader at The Art Of Manliness is a guy who would
not consider the act of picking up an abandoned razor at a flea market or other Bays, and subsequently messing with it in an attempt to restore function, as an activity that calls for fear to do
injustice! to the Holy Object of our Obsession.
The mere thought that We, Razor Aficionados, should have the prerogative to be judgemental whenever someone might do something to a Razor that We would not consider the best course of action, or simply not the action that we would have chosen ourself, is something that I frown upon. It remembers me to the necessity for our annual forum shutdown in August. Time to get out the cave and see the horizon... Breath my friends, they air is full of wonder.
By the way 1:
Robin said:
Links to the MFG entries in SRP's razor database would have been useful.
Links to SRP are never useful. What they accomplish is that they reinforce a forum where a few guys monopolize the truth in function of their own petty agendas (read: business interests). As useful (a fraction of) the information found there may be, it preys upon too many former members who've been silently banned when it so suited those that hold power buttons over there. And that information is mixed with nonsense that serves to lure newly arriving straight razor users into a grotesque kind of consumerism, that I consider far more blasphemous to the nature and tradition of these old-fashioned tools, than the replacement of scales by new ones with unhistorical colors.
By the way 2:
I have brought my share of razors back to functional duty. I think I tried the use of elbow power for 2 minutes, before I reached for something that had an electrical cord attached. Can't say I ever looked back. But I would never patronize a fellow who chooses to do it all by hand.
By the way 3:
Matt shared a link to the article he posted on the Art Of Manliness, because I invited him to do so. Thought I'd mention this, before anyone got the idea he came here only to shamelessly plug this link and business.
By the way 4: in case not everyone noticed it yet. We're in the habit of speaking frankly, over here.
Kind regards,
Bart.