Thread: Monster Joseph Rodgers

Any of you guys see this one?
It's not often.. actually perhaps never, at least that I've seen, that one like this shows up. I was in early on but had to accept that I didn't have enough to buy it.. and if I did, I can only assume that the person who did win it would have bid even higher! Who knows how high it would have gone for... ... 860 bucks is high enough! LOL
What a beauty though!

*MONSTER JOSEPH RODGERS & SONS ANTIQUE SHAVING STRAIGHT RAZOR APPROX. 1inch1/4 *

That is a beast! Nice looking blade, not sure if I would ever use it though. I imagine it would be quite cumbersome to shave with.

Great googly moogly!!

Not sure they can claim the biggest blade ever, but nonetheless a big feller.
Don't think I would sprig that sort of cash though.

Man, $860 seems like quite a bit for a razor that is not mint, has a small crack in the scales, and is not made out of valuable materials like ivory or tortoise. Granted, the blade is old, rare, and is collectible. However, for that amount of money, one could probably get a big custom razor with nice scales.

The good news for the purchaser is that the 10/8 Joseph Rodgers apparently can shave quite well. A forum poster from 2007 (http://straightrazorpalace.com/aucti...h-rodgers.html) (who was fortunate to buy the blade for $290), noted that the razor shaved like a dream.

That looks like overkill to me

Yep, over priced. But not much more than a W&B of the same size would go. And I'd say more rare than a W&B.
Bad angle on the picture, looks like this guy is one of those "Rounder Uppers". It's so much nicer to buy a 8/8 blade and realize it's 1/32 OVER not under...
But he periodically has the most rare and beautiful blades on the Bay, just out of my price range.
Do I buy TEN great blades that will serve well for years to come? OR one blade that I'll be afraid to use as not to lose value? Lol. Happy medium? Hehehe

Aesthetics is personal to some extant, and irrelevant to antiques, which many of our vintage blades are...having aired that, to me this razor is grotesque looking. Would I hone it and shave with it? Dern right!
Bragging rights to be sure, then what?
As far as what something is worth? It has been said many times: what someone is willing to pay for it. Another factor is disposable income. The amount of money paid to acquire this razor is insignificant to some and hopeless dream for others.

I have one of those with the grind one would actually want that in. You'd be surprised how desirable those are.... I still get random offers in my box asking to buy it from time to time. Highest was $1100ish. Never for sale. Nearly impossible to find good ones anymore... That one has a pretty decent chip at the heel.

It's not hard to use fwiw. With the wedge anyway, you just need to reverse what you typically do when you shave, you need to feed out weight when you are shaving towards the ground and feed in more than you normally would when going against gravity. Kind of reversed. Apart from that, it's awesome. You can shave half your face before rinsing if you want...