a review of 'The Standard Guide to Razors'

[NOTE: I originally posted this as a response in Spokeshave's "Old Barber Books' thread, but after re-reading his original post, it didn't seem to fit, so I decided to start a new thread.]

An especially perceptive family member gave me The Standard Guide to Razors by Ritchie & Stewart [1999] for Christmas, and, while interesting, it has some serious limitations.

It's designed for the collector, and the main brunt of the book is about appraising razors and establishing a value for all of the used/vintage razors out there. The method that they espouse basically consists of assigning a base value to a particular manufacturer (and they list thousands of manufacturers, most of which none of us have heard of), and then analyzing the attributes of the razor (scale material, artwork, etching and condition) to arrive at a series of multipliers to the original base value to utlimately determine the razor value. While some of the attributes are pretty well cut and dried (manufacturer, scale material, etc.), a lot of them are judgement related (ie condition, collectibility for 2). For the avid/professional collector, there would definitely be some value to what they propose, but, for a SHAVER, well, I think we look at things a little differently.

For example, they list Dubl-Duck and Bresduck as razor manufacturers, but make no distinction between Satinedge, Goldedge, Wonderedge, Dwarf, Specials - they're all just Dubl Ducks and appraised equally. They also make no distinction with regards to blade size, and, in my limited experience here and on eBay, the larger 'meatchopper' blades seem to command a higher price than than a 3/8 mustache trimmer.

While it is an interesting book to browse, and it IS educational in appraising razor collections, I think that the explosion of eBay, combined with the fact that we are, for the most part, straight edge razor USERS, provide a different value system for these tools that we all use.

Here's an eBay listing

and

Here's an Amazon.com listing

-whatever

-Lou

It is a reference for sure and the pictures of the many razors and handles are most helpful. I usually disregard it on prices and rely on what things are selling for on ebay (Significant escalation in the last 5 years), what razors are going for in the antique shops both on line and where I find them in person, sites like John West's as he has been a collector for over 30 years, etc.

This is a great sport!

Have fun.

Lynn

As you mentioned, the book is for collectors. What a collector looks for in a razor is mostly different from what a shaver is looking for. I expect that, while a collector might shave with a straight, probably not one from his collection.

For instance, I collect barber supply shaving mugs of the golden age. I wouldn't consider using one.


Scott