Thread: Best Book for Newbie for Razor ID

What's the best book a newbie (me) could get that's in print and doesn't cost as much as a TI? Especially one interested in restoration. I got one of Bill's CD's (postal service had the generosity of making a two CD set out of it) waiting on #2.

For Razor ID in general, the "Goins encyclopedia of cutlery markings" is very nice. I use it frequently as it has photos and pics of every (well, not EVERY) razor made, along with any trade marks used by the company.

The "Standard Guide to Razors" is alright, but it's more a book for establishing values. It does have a long list of razor makers and the first few chapters are neat. More for a collector I suppose.

good luck,

Yeah, I bought the standard guide and was somewhat disappointed.
It has a few pages on history (factually and stylistically questionable btw) but 90% of the book is just about establishing the value of razors.

Now, this book was written for collectors, as you say, so it's almost useless for shavers. The author would probably be surprised at some of the market prices seen today. I did manage to find out that one of my razors was made in Argentina, though, so it's not all bad

Redwoood

Redwood,

You are correct. The first 10 pages with bad scetches of "cavemen" attempting to scrape off massive beards with clamshells in an effort to show the history of shaving are terrible.

The diagram of the blade types and straight razor parts is helpful. The diagram showing the sixteen degrees of hollowness, from full hollow to wedge. Also some great photos of razors. The chapter on dating razors is very helpful. From the 1700's to the 1900's, with a step by step detail of how the blade changes, from a massive wedge blade to a much finer detailed and more fragile blade, like the full hollow.

About 120 of 220 pages are used to establish values, though most of that is a long list of razor making companies.

You must have the second edition.
Mine is the first, and has very little on identification or dating, and a very shallow history section.


Redwoood

Yes, I've got the second edition. My wife picked it up on ebay for about 15$ and it's even signed. Not sure if it's by one of the authors or not, but it's signed. The second edition has about 40 pages on razor handle material identification and dating razors, since the two subjects are often dependant on each other.

I wish I had the 2nd edition. When I was looking around, I couldn't find that edition, but the 1st was available for very little. I didn't think there would be such a difference, in fact I was buying it for the identification section. Of course I didn't know that mine wouldn't have any of that information

Oh well, it's not all bad, but as this is a thread on what books to buy I think it's good that we have established how the 2nd edition is much more useful to people like us.

Redwoood

have you tried going to shavemyface.com, if it is about shaving and how to then there is a pdf file worth downloading.
You can download a book by Christopher Moss, its worth a look....hope it helps..


simon

Does somebody know if it is possible to purchase a PDF version of Goins' book anywhere? Living in Europe, the shipping cost is almost higher than the book price, and I am not going to spend for a shipment more than for the item...