I'm a lombard (northern italian) beginner, i found this interesting and well documented place so I decided to join.
I own (well, my parents) my grandfather and maternal grand-grandfathers Solingens, but I decided to let them sleep well oiled in their drawers.
I took the plunge into straights as I have a passion for antique stuff, btw I'm a medieval bladesmith as well so i will end up making a copy of a medieval straight as soon as I get the right documentation).
Also straights cost nothing with regard to modern style razors whose replacements costs a lot here while are worth just a few shavings.
Today i bought from a respectable cutlery a new hamburg ring 120 GOTTA superfine, "finest silver steel forged and ground in Solingen Germany", an item that clearly had been sitting there for many years before I decided to buy it.
Old smith would call silver steel the steel obtained from carburization of iron so i was very pleased when I saw this writing on the "tail" (tang?) of the blade .
It is an ancient way of evaluating steel, this reassured me about its makers, also the blade carries a nice acid etched writing with the razor's name, so the physical appearance is totally satisfying (it is placed a bit lower with respect to the older GOTTA you have in your db, but it is basically the same logo).
The handle carries the GOTTA writing in italic as well, being made of an ivory color old style plastic.
All in all a very pleasant buy.
