Thread: Why I love vintage razors.

As much as I love the look of some of the new razors available, the Dovos and the TIs I have to admit I just don't feel as drawn to them as I do to vintage razors.

The more I think about it, there is no one thing that draws me so heavily to vintage razors, but rather several hopelessly interwoven causes of this attraction.

Because of the quality of the razor it's self and prestige of the companies who made them, you know it's making was with pride and care. They wanted it to be the best it could be, and took steps to insure it was something they could be proud of. Which is largely lacking in todays mass production, disposable based marketplace. It's a wonderful feeling to hold and use something you know was built to endure, something made both beautiful and well suited to it's purpose.

It's an amazing feeling. Using something so common and ordinary from such a long passed period goes a long way to remind you of just how much history is in what you're holding and in what you're doing. It leaves you sort of wondering, which I oddly like. It also gives you a certain sense of pride to be connected to such a long history.

It makes you very aware of time and how it passes. Whoever first held that razor could very well have had concerns very much like mine, which mays you feel a connection to the past. They also could have had concerns nothing like mine, which reminds you of the passage of time. Either way, though, it reminds you of how time passes with or without you. It also reminds you of how your concerns are only temporary. Maybe in a hundred years, someone will be still holding that razor, worrying about the same things I worry about...

Finally, to take a razor from a antique or junkshop. A razor that has with little doubt sat in some drawer or shed for the last fourty years or better, to take it home and buff it, sharpen it and return it to it's original use is a feeling like no other. I can't even describe the feeling I get from taking a razor, one that has been in existance several times my own life (my oldest is nearly seven times older than I) and saving it from the rust and rot it's been left to. I've always had a bit of a problem with personifying objects, but something so finely made, so full of craftmans ship, so full of history, to take something that has been allowed to fall in to uselessness and disrepair and give it back it's purpose, to give it back it's usefulness... It almost feels like charity. It feels like meeting an old man, frail, sickly and forgotten and giving him back his pride.

That's just my two cents... And why I just can't resist buying up those old vintage razors.

I could not have stated it any better.....
I own over 50 razors and only 3 were brand new to me, I just don't get the connection that I do with the vintage ones, even NOS seems to have a better story in there somewhere....

The only trouble is the cost. :P

I refuse to spend more than fifteen dollars for a non-shave ready razor. Mostly because I know I'm going to get burned someday, I'll pick up a razor with some flaw I didn't notice at the time or some such. Even so, though... The costs stack up. Normally I'm pretty thrifty, but sometimes I just see a razor I can't leave sitting there. :P

I look forward to seeing someone post a shave video using a restored ancient Greco-Roman style razor. I wonder if they ever worried about gas prices?

Probably not... but maybe the price of a barrel of olive oil? :P

Originally Posted by Cobo

Probably not... but maybe the price of a barrel of olive oil? :P

I don't know, but I do know that gasoline doesn't grow on trees
I like having a vintage razor as well, but I don't have anything against new quality razors either. But then I've never used new straight razors so I haven't had opportunity to knock them yet

Well said Cobo.

Kinda humbling to know that the simple tool you hold in your hand will outlive you and move on to other owners without so much as a shrug.

I have a mild case of RAD, myself. And for pretty much the same reasons COBO stated.
However, I believe it may go a bit deeper than that. Personally, I don't get along well with new technology. I have preferred Single Action revolvers over the new 'Race Guns' for my whole adult life. I have carried antique Pocket Watches for many years. The Watch I carry on a daily basis, is a Hamilton 992 that was made in 1926. It keeps very good time and I am completely satisfied with it. If someone gave me a new Rolex, I would immediately sell it and buy more Hamiltons and Elgins! Straight Razors fit in there some place.
My Mother has told me for years, that I was born around a hundred years too late. I can't argue with that. I am more comfortable with old, proven technology.
Just look at all that can go wrong with an electronic 'shaver.' Straight Razors are almost the epitome of simplicity. Nothing that isn't needed for function. I have found that the best design is the simple design. MUCH less to go wrong.
Sometimes when I look upon, touch and use those old implements, I am briefly transported back to the time of Steam Locomotives and the years before there were World Wars.
And that Gentlemen, is why I feel as I do about Straight Razors.