Thread: New to straight razors but long time blade enthusiast

A friend of mine started to buy and use straight razors a while back and I found it interesting that they still have such a loyal following. I always imagined them being a pain to use and not shaving as well as a modern razor. I have always like knives and swords of all types and after getting a good Japanese knife that is sharper than I have ever owned I realized a piece of high carbon steel could be sharpened to an edge that is so sharp it shaves smoother than my moder razors.

I picked up a pre 1891 Wade & Butcher hollow ground with a black horn handle and a J.A. Henckels of an unknown date with what appears to be a plastic handle, both for $40 at an antique shop. The shop has a whole box of razors and I will be going back for the really nice dubl duck I passed up for the W&B. I hope to buy a razor a month and build up a nice collection. I love restoring antique things and will be making a nice new set of scales for the W&B since the horn is in very bad shape.


as you can see they both are in need of restoration and the W&B is in particularly poor condition, it was very very rusty before a light cleaning but still has some bad stains and pits to work out. The Henckels just needs a good honing and polishing of the steel and scales.

I hope to learn a lot from this forum and show off a bit of my restoration and collecting.

Welcome to SRP!

It is great to see someone coming into this with eyes open. (i.e. an already-formed RAD plan!)

I think you'll find this to be an incredibly welcoming source of information and a great community.

BTW - nice finds!