Thread: Need assistance/more information on razor

Hi there!

My husband and I recently purchased a large quantity of vintage straight blades at a local estate sale. We have one, the likes of which I've never seen before and I'm wondering if someone can give me any additional information on it?

If you wouldn't mind, please check out the listing for it here: Vintage Rogers Cutlery Straight Razor Black Germany! - eBay (item 300364499091 end time Nov-13-09 10:02:57 PST)

It is the inlay of the bird that has us curious. Does anyone know what type of bird this may be? And when it was used?

Thanks very much!

Jennifer
ItsAllOurVault

Hello and welcome! Have to say I find it interesting that the first post is to direct to an auction, but see my avatar text. I'll keep an open mind though...

Not to be too direct but if the draw of that razor is supposed to be the scales, and the "...handle is in rather bad shape...", why direct our attention to it at all since the blade needs work as well? A rather cynical gent (and we may have one, maybe two here) might assume this is a lure to the auction with the intent to redirect to the online store. However, I couldn't find any razors available there! Which takes one back to the curious nature of a new member's first post. But that's not the reason for this response...

I'm assuming from the auction text that you bought a large number of razors that you intend to sell there. If I read that correctly, please include the information below in all of your razor auctions if you want to keep the info requests to a minimum. You may want to add it to this auction. I used to ask these questions frequently but now I simply don't bid auctions that don't provide this unless it's a truly unique razor or one that's NOS and well known. Providing the info below may not get you any higher prices but it will make it easier for an experienced buyer to make a decision to bid it.

- Blade width to the nearest 16th or 8th inch as appropriate
- Clear close-up photos of both sides of the blade including all of the blade
- Clear photos of both sides of the scales including all of each scale
- Words as to whether there are any cracks in the blade or not, same for the scales - with close-up photos of that damage.
- If you know what the grind is, state the grind type, if not, include a clear photo of the toe of the blade head-on so that the buyer can determine the grind type.

Many of us enjoy restoring blades so we'll bid razors that can be restored - some can't. But many will avoid bidding auctions that don't provide the info needed to make an intelligent decision about the razor. When considering bids on 40 or 50 razors a week, it does get difficult to have to keep asking the same questions. Not that we all bid that many, but many do consider at least that many each week, so the more pertinent information provided, that easier it is to decide to place a bid. Hope that helps some for you. And consider posting a bit in other threads so that we can learn about you and your husband. Otherwise you're just hawking an auction. I'm sort of like the strange uncle that gets kept in the basement - I'll say and ask things others are thinking but not quite ready to vocalize themselves.

Hi and welcome to SRP. The bird looks to me to be a peac0ck. It is sort of hard to make out but it looks to me like those are his tail feathers below the bird running down the scales. (we call handles scales) Get your husband to get on here and he can save on razor blades and start shaving with one of those bad boys. Good luck with your auctions.

To my first reply - we bought well over 200 razors at this particular estate sale. We've sold all but about 30 of them. Were I here to "hawk" my auctions, I would have linked to the entire category of listings right from the get-go. We are down to the tail end of these now though and I simply found this one interesting and after multiple Google searches regarding the inlay, I found nothing and so came here hoping for some help.

We wouldn't regularly post on here as we are not collectors, hence this is my first post.

I'm not taking offense - merely stating why I was inquiring about this particular razor.

As to why you didn't find the other listings I am not quite certain. We have a category just for these in our store as there were so many of them and at this point in time, there are currently 26 listings.

Try to keep in mind that some people out there are still honest and can be taken at face value~ ;-)

To my second response, I will take a better closeup photo of the little guy. He has a tuft on the back of his head, but no tail showing at all. Very curious little fellow! I thought perhaps a quail, but the husband (who merely trims but rarely shaves...) believes otherwise~

By the way, what does the term NOS stand for? And when you mention measuring the width of the blade, does that measurement pertain to the top of the blade? Or the distance right to left?

Originally Posted by ItsAllOurVault

By the way, what does the term NOS stand for? And when you mention measuring the width of the blade, does that measurement pertain to the top of the blade? Or the distance right to left?

NOS is new old stock. The measurement would be from the top of the spine (thick part of the blade) to the bottom of the cutting edge. Razors are usually designated as 6/8, 5/8 . 11/16 for example. They are pretty much all the same length so the width of the blade is the pertinent info for a shaver.

Is it common for a razor to not have a maker/manufacturer? We've only run across just a few in this lot. We thought they were blanks, but if that were the case, then wouldn't they not be used?

Originally Posted by ItsAllOurVault

Is it common for a razor to not have a maker/manufacturer? We've only run across just a few in this lot. We thought they were blanks, but if that were the case, then wouldn't they not be used?

In the world of pocket knife collecting the rule of thumb is that if a maker doesn't think enough of his work to put a name on it the quality must not be very good. I imagine someone might buy a razor with no name at a minimal cost and take a chance on it. No collector would bother with it IMO.

Well Jennifer my bad for not finding the razors - I did finally find them there. Remember I'm old (ish) and am like that strange uncle. :-) I'd bid a few of them actually but could use the blade widths....

The bird is the Kibitz makers mark - sometimes spelled "kiebitz" - maker is Gebr. emde, Weyer-Solingen. Gebruder is german for brothers.

Regards,
Neil