Thread: The ones that surprised you?

Like most of us we have a large collection of straight razors. I though have one razor that surprised me and was wondering if others had simmilar stores. I have a medium to large collection of straights from no names to high end and everything in between. One day I purchased a razor from an antique store that was so covered in rust it looked to be to far past gone to restore but the scale was in good shape. It was $5 so I bought it. After taking it apart I noticed that the rust was just brushing off. So I took it to a 600 grit wheel not thinking anything would come of it. The rust come of so easily I was shocked! It reveled a slightly pitted shinny Crown Razor from Boston. I stayed with the 600 for while till all the rust was off and left the slight pitting. Went through the rest of the process and honed it. To my utter shock it honed faster than any other razor I had done! The shave was incredable! To this day my best shaving razor is not any of my W and B's, Dbl Ducks or Boker's, it's my $5 Crown Razor. I was just wondering if any one has a simmilar razor story.

it looks like it came out pretty nice !!! after seeing most of the work that our members do as far as restores not much has surprised me !! i have saw some pics where i cringed , just to see the next picture look like a brand new razor ... it is amazing some of the metal that can be saved !!

I am continually surprised every time I pick my no name razor for the morning shave. It was an infamous bay purchase at a cheap cost. Sent out to be honed (now hone my own) and in the last year and a half I have only to strop it before each shave. I'm wondering when it will finally reach the touch up stage.

I had an experience sort of in reverse...

One of probably the first 10 razors I bought was ugly with a lot of devil's spit but had a clean edge. I honed it up on one of the two hones I had at the time--a Swaty and a Carborundum 102. It was one of my two best shavers. A few years later, after I found SRP, I learned about 7 day sets and thought this one was a good basis for one. I started buying more of this same razor and finally gave up when I reached 6.

There was no point in buying the 7th razor because none of the next 5 that I had bought were anywhere near as good as the first one. They were perfectly good razors but they did not shave as well as the first. If I remember correctly, they were all 5/8 razors but the first one was a 6/8.

They were all Carbo Magnetics.

I did eventually figure out the difference and it had nothing to do with size. I could feel a difference when I honed them and shaved with them, but it only was confirmed when I realized that the first one, the 6/8, was stamped with "Extra Hard" on the monkey tail.

I look for that stamp every time I see a Carbo Magnetic, but I've never found its mate.

I'm still looking; and I've reduced my odds of finding another by pointing this out!

Great find and a wonderful surprise! I hope to find something that nice!

Like a house with a good foundation as long as a razor has same, the potential is always there to turn what at first look is a rusty lump of steel into a first rate shaver. You never know. I've had many razors like that and it's really very common.

Funny seeing this thread because I have a razor that I have been using that still surprises me. I've had a few others, but this one surprised me the most. I couldn't find any info on the maker and the quality of the the razor looks sub par. The grind marks don't really look all that well and there are a couple spots where it looks like the grinder dug into the razor deeper than the rest. In fact it almost looks like it was plated and than ground when compared to the tang. I put a pair of scales on it that I had lying around that I made to test out a different look and wasn't really concerned about. The edge that it took though completely took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting that at all. In fact I didn't believe it so I had to use the razor for 7 shaves just to make sure that it would hold an edge longer than one shave and it is still going strong. I guess I will have to be careful not to judge a razor by its looks anymore.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I had an experience sort of in reverse...

One of probably the first 10 razors I bought was ugly with a lot of devil's spit but had a clean edge. I honed it up on one of the two hones I had at the time--a Swaty and a Carborundum 102. It was one of my two best shavers. A few years later, after I found SRP, I learned about 7 day sets and thought this one was a good basis for one. I started buying more of this same razor and finally gave up when I reached 6.

There was no point in buying the 7th razor because none of the next 5 that I had bought were anywhere near as good as the first one. They were perfectly good razors but they did not shave as well as the first. If I remember correctly, they were all 5/8 razors but the first one was a 6/8.

They were all Carbo Magnetics.

I did eventually figure out the difference and it had nothing to do with size. I could feel a difference when I honed them and shaved with them, but it only was confirmed when I realized that the first one, the 6/8, was stamped with "Extra Hard" on the monkey tail.

I look for that stamp every time I see a Carbo Magnetic, but I've never found its mate.

I'm still looking; and I've reduced my odds of finding another by pointing this out!

I'll look at my carbon magnetics later,appreciate the info.-CAM-