Thread: Advice on purchase of blades

Hi guys!

I registered here some time ago to sip straight razor wisdom and planned to start a small collection of razors to have a choice for rotation but then things changed and I had to give up the idea. Now I'd like to take it up again (especially that my only blade fell down and lost part of its tip - still shaves though).

To cut the long story short - I need some purchase advice. A guy nearby (I'm based in Poland) has a number of blades on sale and while I can recognise the obvious junk I don't really have the expertise to tell whether a blade requires only some moderate restoration. Is this subforum good for posting photos? Should I create a separate thread for each blade (as many as 7 caught my eye) or separate posts in one thread would be enough?

Your feedback will be much appreciated. I'm no expert in honing but I have an MST Mueller which worked quite nice on my only razor although I'm still not fully satisfied with the closeness of shave on parts of my face.

That came out a bit longish, I hope somebody actually reads it. Cheers!
Kuba

Post them all here and we'll let you know what would be required to make them shave. Or if they should be avoided.

If you only have the one stone, I'd recommend sending them out or looking into getting a progression of recommended stones.

It's a slur kind of hone so it does allow some progression up to 8000. Do you think only a finisher extra would do, or is a 1000 grit also a must?

Thanks for the reply! I'll start posting the photos shortly.

sometimes cheaper to buy a good condition straight razor on ebay-B/S/T-internet stuff then buying supplies and taking time to repair a razor. But if you run into razor with good scales, closes nicely, and looks like it has a decent bevel then go for it I suppose

All right let's get to it! First off, two Schulze's (I suppose they're two as it's the same model):

Schulze 1

Schulze 2:

Another one, a Fram:

J.A. Hellberg:

Morley & Sons:

Last one, Rondinella: