Thread: Suggestion on a straight razor

Over the weekend I was in an antique shop (I live in the US) and I found a section that a woman had some older straight razors. One that caught my eye because of the handle was quite nice, I believe to be made out of bone, was 50.00 USD. Seemed like a decent buy. Haven't bought it yet.

My question comes to this; The name on the razor was Moore & something or Something and Moore. I do not remeber the name but for some reason mooney or mooley come to mind. I am off on the name I am not remembering. I was curious is anyone knows anything of this name/company and if you do then how is the quality?

The blade looks well cared for, rust free, no knicks, has the original box it came in.

Any and all help is most definitely appreciated.

Been lurking on the site for a couple days now and so far it seems really great and a wealth of information.

Hope to have more input soon and perhaps share my pains and pleasures on learning how to shave with a straight razor!

Check the classifieds here.
You can often get a shave ready razor for $50 there. That's probably a safer bet as a first razor.

Generally, all vintage blades were good. They had to perform the task. Whether that particular blade can be brought back to shaving is another matter. Hard to tell without photo's, & there were so many makers, or agents names on the blades.

It most likely needs sharpening (honing) and a cleanup so I agree it's probably better to get one from the classifieds here.

Welcome to SRP. The best thing to do would be to take a photo of the blade and post that on the forum. That way members could give an assessment based on the condition of the razor.

Here is the SRP Wiki with tutorials and a straight razor data base with photos of many named razors. This may help refresh you memory on the name should a copy be in there.

I generally have a self-imposed limit of much less than $50 for antique store razors for reasons posted above. That being said, a pic would help, as would a description of size. For all we know, it could be a huge 9/8 chopper.

The average antique store razor sells for about $15 to $20. There are some that will be marked up close to $50 as you've found but I haven't seen any here in Missouri marked that high.

In Phoenix, the antique razor market is very sketchy. I've seen blades that resembled swiss cheese selling for $10 and decent looking blades selling for $50. Now, I have no idea who pays those prices, but those were the asking prices.

As for my advice. The classifieds is the best place to start for a budget razor.

I am a new guy here too, and instead of buying a new straight razor first, I got a couple from my grandfather. They were in good shape, had some rust and pitting the edges were all fine and free of chips.

However, I got these a few months ago and have not been able to shave with them since. Getting them cleaned up yourself if you have never done it before is difficult. You will probably have to send it to someone here at SRP that is a pro at getting these razors back to shave-ready condition.

I agree with getting one from the SRP classifieds, that is what I would have done.

Inexpensive blades from antique shops are great for practicing honing and stropping.