Thread: Hi from Virginia

Not particularly surprised to see the blade in such a condition. I am curious to see how the "high-end" razor looks.

What set my suspicions off originally, when I saw the site, was there no maker's marks visible on the tang. Just a rather ugly "inlay." The way I saw it, if no one wanted to stamp anything on the thing (or simply set a name to it), they were ashamed of its overall quality.

Now, if they were selling this for $100 (which I rather doubt. I bet it's *always* on sale), and you can get a very nice, pre-honed Dovo Best Quality for $75... well, I know where my money would go.

EDIT: I should mention, as always, your mileage may vary.

Just picked up a Morley from a local consignment shop for a song. Just needs a little cleaning and to be honed and I think I have a winner (aside from an aesthetic chip in the tang side of the scales).

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That's a good find, congrats. Pictures, pictures!

I'm going to take some pictures as is tonight before I start cleaning some of the surface rust and inspecting it further. I'm under the assumption based on other peoples experiences with Morleys that they are solid and it's hard to mess them up so I'm feeling pretty confident about giving it a light cleaning myself before sending it out for a good honing.

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Hey Jinxt,

None of my business, but I just wanted to weigh in against using a Dremel for sanding (or polishing or anything else). Most stories about Dremels and straight razors have really sad endings. Not that it can't be done, but if it's your first time rehabbing a straight, it's a real dicey shortcut. Plus you can get hurt by the blade or pieces of it when they go airborne. There's lots of good restoration info in the Wiki and of course in the workshop thread.

I hope the work is going well and that you found a great blade.

if you have a morley, you have a definate winner, i have 2 of them and they are both great shavers, get them cleaned up and honed up and you will be in like flynn, in fact if you need them honed let me know, i would be willing to do it for you just cover the postage.

Also just picked up a Dubl Duck Special no 1 (pearlduck) and a Crown & Sword (ERN 1935) from a local flea market. They all need some cleanup and a good honing but I'm pretty happy and excited to get them in working condition as I don't have very much money tied up in them at the moment.

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I'd like to offer an update on the situation which led me to start this post in the first place.

I have been in contact with the owner of vintagestraightrazor.com about the state in which I received the razor. In a rush to get orders for that particular sale out of the door a mistake was made and one of the employees grabbed a few razors which had not been honed, polished, sharpened, stropped and made shave-ready. Had it been through that scrutiny they would have noticed the blade was warped. It would not have passed their QA standards and it would not have been shipped out to a paying customer. I was not the only one affected by this employee's poor judgment (I have been told there were about 10 people in total that were affected by it) and since it was brought to their attention it has a very small chance of happening to anyone else. I feel this is reasonable due to them being a small, new start-up in an already tiny niche to begin with and they have instituted a free hone/sharpening/polish/retouch service to ALL customers in response to concerns and to try and fix the mistake to those affected while giving current and past customers not affected by it even more bang for their buck.

The owner (Luke) has been very forthcoming with me over the matter and I have been assured that they will make the situation right. He and I have gone back and forth enough via emails that I am fully comfortable giving them the benefit of the doubt at this point in time.

They will also be shipping me a couple of their other razors to inspect and photograph and when they arrive I will be sure to document the experience to share with the rest of the forum. While the razors WILL be provided for review without personal cost to me, I will not be biased and I will be providing information with what I am able to experience first-hand with the products.

If they suck I will be laying out where I feel improvements could be made. If I have a very good experience with them then I will be willing to defend the products even if others who have no first-hand experience with them tell people to stay away.

If there are any, more experienced shavers reading this that would also like to test these products out first-hand please let me know and I will be perfectly happy lending them any of the razors to test for themselves provided they are willing to also post about their experience and don't mind paying the shipping fees involved.

There is not a lot of information available out there from shavers who have used their razors and with all the deals they've been posting to woot lately there is interest brewing. It'd be nice to add their info here so that good or bad, at least people have a place to find out about them.

Jinxt,

Sounds like you're developing a great rapport with this retailer. If you need someone with more experience to evaluate and review their product, I'd be happy to participate.

Bill

We're building a rapport for sure. Believe me it didn't start that way. I was rather harsh and a bit over the top at first (it took a while to get to the heart if the situation) and he was understandably defensive. I'm actually very impressed with how much this has turned around since my initial assumption of the matter.

I'll pm you after I receive the items and we'll get it worked out.

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