Thread: eBay 101

Ditto that. I've been pilfering stuff that's 50 to 100 years old and unused or close to it. The cutlers back then making the razors may not have known it, but they were making the finest everyday razors that have ever been made, and the competition drove them to make some really spectacular things, and the polish was still pretty good then - bright and polished, but crisp without looking like it was on a buffer all day.

It's a little cheaper than some new razors, but not cheap to buy old NOS stuff!!

Here's an interesting page of makers, I've been pilfering old stuff and some of it's on this list and some isn't.

Razor makers

The interesting notion is that the stuff that's come from germany comes in waves. Pre -WWI, and then obviously german stuff wouldn't have been very popular in the late teens. Then in the 20s when there was economic expansion, there was a whole big influx of some very high quality razors. I don't know what happened after that, it's off my radar.



But in post WWII japan, you have a fascination with the japanese trying to outdo solingen razors, so there's a whole other pile of high quality vintage razors, with some NOS still available.

I was away from here for a while. Coming back has been very fiscally damaging!!

For anyone interested, sometimes the rough ones can come around quite well in the right hands... was an eBay purchase, wasn't cheap but I wanted this piece of history preserved and being used again...

Before going to gssixgun...




After gssixgun worked his magic...






And now, of all my razors it is my favourite and "go-to" razor

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

For anyone interested, sometimes the rough ones can come around quite well in the right hands... was an eBay purchase, wasn't cheap but I wanted this piece of history preserved and being used again...

Before going to gssixgun...




After gssixgun worked his magic...






And now, of all my razors it is my favourite and "go-to" razor

From ho to pimp!!

Up for sale is a vintage HAMILTON HOLLOW GROUND FULLY WARRENTED PEACOCK Straight Razor.The blade and is 10/16" wide and 5 1/2" length.


There is pitting,tarnish & rust on the blade & the handle is good and intact minor scratches and separation at the top. Could be fully restored to a beautiful condition.




I asked the seller how he would restore the chipped toe to a beautiful condition. No response.

The scales will drive the sale. Most of us have a lot of blades and are looking for nice rescales of the period.
~Richard

Righto, I didn't consider that. I buy with the intent to find a shaver for myself. I guess I am not really a collector.

Thank you for a really great thread.

Originally Posted by OldTraf

Up for sale is a vintage HAMILTON HOLLOW GROUND FULLY WARRENTED PEACOCK Straight Razor.The blade and is 10/16" wide and 5 1/2" length.


There is pitting,tarnish & rust on the blade & the handle is good and intact minor scratches and separation at the top. Could be fully restored to a beautiful condition.




I asked the seller how he would restore the chipped toe to a beautiful condition. No response.

That is a very rare and collectible moustache razor.........Many years ago my Dad always told my Mother, "Look Ma, the kid's razor must have a hole in it. He missed his upper lip again." Dad has been gone now for 10 years but he still cracks me up.

OK, I will post my original comments here. I chickened out and deleted my first post but well, I guess I'll give it a shot. For all those folks new to straight razors who are crossing the bridge that we all crossed as newbies; here is a newbie experience with some pics that I had almost six years ago with Ebay. I started straight razor shaving over five years ago and found this forum about eight months or a year later. Not sure. I'm just a broken down old guy. As a new straight razor shaver, I broke all the new guy rules even though I should have known better. I was dazzled by the initials 'DD'. I HAD to have a Dubl Duck. I figured it would raise my newbie status and impress all the old timers. (Oh my gosh how foolish I was!) It no doubt impressed others alright, but not the way I hoped it would. I sure hope I'm not the only person to have done this. So I dashed off to Ebay to find myself a Dubl Duck straight razor. Another strike against me of course was that I hadn't even heard of Ebay before this time or moment in my space/time continuum. I value a few things in my very simple creed. Honesty, Integrity and Honor. I learned those things at a very early age from my uncle and have tried all my life to more or less live by that in my little corner of the sand box. Of course, the down side was that I was naive to think at the time that everyone on Ebay believed and practiced the same values. My apologies for running my mouth so I better wrap this up. I ended up purchasing a DD Satinedge. It looked to my newbies eyes as the best, most wonderful find of the millennium. The person went on at length about it's this and that and shave ready state. Awesome! What's shave ready mean? See where I'm going with this. When I got the razor it had flaws. The scales were all cracked and disintegrating with hairline cracks all along their length. The blade was shiny/polished but only to make it a stand-out, carnival razor. It was as dull as a hoe. It wouldn't even shave arm hair let alone bet anywhere on the 0-5 rated HHT. A friend who was really into honing spent a lot of time finally getting it shave ready. It is an awesome shaver. Time leap with me to the present five and a half years later. Below you will see pics of the razor as it sits on my razor work-shop bench. The scales are off, the blade will be carefully tended and I will re-scale it. After five years of a very painful learning curve I actually took the time to read every single article, thread, post and look at every picture I could find about straight razors. I guess it's never too late to stop, turn around, admit, boy did I ever $uck up and waste huge amounts of cash chasing shadows, deals, and razor rainbows. I admit it. I surely did. Now, if and when I go to Ebay to view razors my eyes are narrow slits of suspicion and intense scrutiny and of course, skepticism. I have sent so many hustlers emails asking questions about better pictures and for clarification and getting BS answers or NO answers, (a dead give-away) that I could fill a file folder an inch think. So to wrap up this, for me anyway, and it is just my MHO, to new initiates into this great world; slow down, take a deep breath, make yourself a cup of coffee or get yourself a few fingers of 15 year old Glenfiddich, and READ, read, and read some more. Don't even consider rashly rushing out and wasting money on a bright shiny, or alluring estate razor until you can look at it, I mean actually look at and go hmmm, "that bevel is shit. The toe has had the temper taken out of it because some idiot decided to heat it. The scales are out-gassing, look at the shit all along the scale/razor open edge. And the wheels of the bus go round and round. Certainly if you are interested in a bay deal and are uncertain, tag the link and post it or do a screen cap (if you have Windows 7 and up use the handy snip-it tool) and post the pics and ask. That initial DD cost me $375.00 USD With the money I spent in my initial feeding frenzy I could have purchased several top notch, custom razors. I am thinking of re-scaling this DD with either Honey ox-horn or white Recon stone. I salvaged the inlay and will re-install it on the new scales. SWMBO thinks the honey-ox would look good. I'm still thinking about what to use. Since I plan to re-scale it, I wasn't worried about salvaging these particular scales.
I hope this hasn't enraged anyone or offended any forum members. I apologize if I did.
Kindly