Thread: $5-10 eBay razors....

What's the deal with these things? There are so many of them listed and that's so cheap compared to buying new from SRD or even buying from the classifieds on here.

Are they just cheap simply because they are not "shave-ready" 99% of the time?

Is it a really crappy alloy steel that won't take a good honing?

Sadly today, like my third or fourth week of using a straight razor (I only shaved once every 2 or 3 days) I accidentally nicked my blade on the sink faucet while rinsing it off. Twice.

I'm thinking of buying one of these ebay razors and a hone (I don't really know which, people have said norton4/8k is all I really need as a beginner) and giving it some practice before I attempt to repair the chips in my brand new dovo razor.

Well a general rule is that you get what you pay for and cheap eBay razors are no exception.There has been reports that some of the Gold Dollars can be honed and give a decent shave but the quality is just to uneven so the chance of getting a useless paperweight instead is very high. I would spend my 10 bucks on something else rather then a crap Paki razor. Check the wiki here for good and bad razor brands.Try to get a hold of a nice vintage razor instead, they can also be found cheap on the bay but they are of a much higher quality and after honing should be able to give you an excellent shave.

I really think you can get an excellent razor here, on this site, for as low as $20. People here are concerned about (for the most part) their reputation and fairly represent their product. I've bought one razor from this site and it cost me $40 (I think) - including shipping. It's beautiful! It's an Army & Navy model from a U.S. manufacturer that was made in Germany. In fact, many of the razors that were marketed in the U.S. for firms like Hibbard Spencer & Bartlett Co., (todays True Value) were made in Germany. The quality is outstanding. They generally come shave ready, which is desirable so you know the inherent potential of the razor. I've also shopped at razoremporium. They have some great stuff too, in a similar price range, but their stuff doesn't come shave ready so you will need to hone the blade.

While, I think some of us can find fantastic razors for $5-$10 on ebay, you'd be just wasting your money. You don't have the experience to tell the good from the bad. Unfortunately this experience doesn't come cheap, so you'll be paying one way or another. It's just a matter of choice which way you want to go. If you want to go and experiment read as much as you can here first, so that you can save yourself few basic mistakes.
Or just pay somebody to fix your razor and learn to only maintain it, which is the easiest and cheapest long term option.

You can buy razors all day long on the bay for under $10 dollars. In most cases they will be just as nice as anything you can buy at SRD so long as you are willing to put about $1,000 of labor into each razor. :-) :-) The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. Me personally .... I like buying the beaters because I like the challenge and enjoy the work. But I buy the beaters knowing full well going in that a meaningful amount of work will be needed. Have fun!

I've bought several razors for around $20 on the bay, including a cast steel Bengall for $20, a John Sellers and Sons for $17 and a set of three for $21 including a Wade and Butcher and two german razors, all of which honed up nicely...

Cheap _new_ razors will be garbage. There are no exceptions that I've heard of (Gold Dollar possible exception, and the one I worked on never got really sharp).

Cheap _vintage_ razors were good razors, once upon a time. Whether they can be restored (or are worth restoring) to "shave-readiness" depends on the individual blade.

Two completely different animals.

Charles

There's always that off hand chance that you get something special. But I think it's the exception.

Originally Posted by weldor

What's the deal with these things? There are so many of them listed and that's so cheap compared to buying new from SRD or even buying from the classifieds on here.

Are they just cheap simply because they are not "shave-ready" 99% of the time?

Is it a really crappy alloy steel that won't take a good honing?

Sadly today, like my third or fourth week of using a straight razor (I only shaved once every 2 or 3 days) I accidentally nicked my blade on the sink faucet while rinsing it off. Twice.

I'm thinking of buying one of these ebay razors and a hone (I don't really know which, people have said norton4/8k is all I really need as a beginner) and giving it some practice before I attempt to repair the chips in my brand new dovo razor.

If you're talking about new razors on ebay , selling for $5-$10 , they are pure junk . They are not shave ready 100% of the time , and never will be . They are good for stropping practice , because they're not sharp enough to damage your strop . Pretty much everything is wrong with them , the steel , grind , and bevel .

Actually, I just had a fine ebay experience, arrived today. I spent $25 on an Osgood Bray, German made, company was based in MA. It is beautiful! In fact, I sent the seller a couple of suggestions (I know, I'm a fool), in effect explaining to her (not a mistake -seller was a woman) that she should probably put a more detailed description and put some pics that adequately represent the seller's product. Because, I can tell you this much, I was surprised when I opened the package and saw a gorgeous bright chrome, 100 + year old razor. In the meantime, I've honed it, pasted it, ran it on the linen and finished it on the leather. It looks great and it's ready to go! I figured that she should've been able to get ten or fifteen dollars more for it due to the seller's inexperience -and I told her just that.