Thread: hello from Sheffield, England! + quick question

hi guys (and girls?)

new to the forum and to straight razor shaving in that i haven't started yet! i have been wanting to try for while but only just plucked up the courage to, and i also wanted a little piece of my hometown to take to university/college at the end of the year.

my recently purchased razor came in the post this morning... its a vintage, shave ready, needham brothers sheffield repeat 11/16.

it looks nice came well packaged and was bought online (i know, maybe i should have picked one i could look at) from a dealer and enthusiast from pontefract who honed it for me before shipping. it felt good bringing it back to its place of origin haha!

so, on to my question... it came and has a slight ding near the spine, i guess you guys will be thinking 'thats what you get when you dont know what you're looking at and you buy online' but will this cause problems? i can only see it being cosmetic, as it is far from the cutting edge... your help will be greatly appriciated!

now for some images, the ding is shown in some of them.

It should be fine, but did the seller disclose this defect prior to the sale? I would never sell a razor with a flaw like that without making sure the buyer knows exactly what it is he is getting.

no i think his words were 'cleaned with barbicide so may have some slight pitting to the tang spine and blade' was a bit of a bummer when i opened it but i still cant stop looking at it, its a thing of beauty haha!

I don't know anything about that brand of razor, but assuming she's a good one, I don't see that the di will give you too much grief. Does any of the inner edges feel sharp or rough? That may be an issue for your strop.


Mick

Can't see that little ding causing any problems, looks OK, and what I can see of the edge that looks fine as well, tell us how your first attempt goes.

Jamie

thanks for all your responses guys! it makes me happy to see such a bunch of friendly, helpful chaps, its getting quite rare these days!
in response to mickr, there is no sharpness (other than the cutting edge) on the blade so it shouldn't cause me a problem by the looks of things.
again, thankyou all for your help

i'm presuming its shefield steel so in that case it will be a real nice shaver .

regards gary from nottingham england

Welcome! wow from sheffield such a prestigious place in the world of straight razors, Maybe you can find some vintage razors locally? I picked up a bengall and a bleckmann from a vintage store the other day, 20 dollars each. (are there vintage stores in sheffield? lol i dont even know where it is, although my family are from manchester but i've never been to the UK even though I have citizenship there lol)

I'm a bit further north than Sheffield, in West Yorkshire, but I did consider driving there if I could find any shops. I do generally like to look at & handle the merchanise I buy before purchasing, but unfortunately the only place I could find based in Sheffield was

The English Shaving Company brings you an extensive range of handmade Edwin Jagger razors, shaving brushes, shaving accessories, shaving creams and aftershaves

Unfortunately, it looks completely web based, & google streetview just made it look like a warehouse on a back street. You can't even identify the building itself. I was suprised I couldn't find anything. Turns out the internet isn't the fountain of all knowledge after all. I'm sure there'll be some traditional barbers that sell them. My wife found one in Leeds City Centre that sells kits, but I couldn't find any actual shops in this part of the country online. I don't think traditional barbers necessarily mix with the web.

In the end I was more than happy with what I got from The Invisible Edge website.

saitou + kaden, you would think that it would be incredibly easy to find razors in a place so famous for its steel, knives, and razors but you would be deceived... its surprisingly hard to find anywhere in sheffield selling them, sure there are vintage shops, 2 of them to be precise but i have never seen any shaving gear in either of them. its saddening really, all the tradition and history seems to be forgotten. there was a cutlers which sold razors but has closed in the last few years.
saitou, manchester is quite close to sheffield, i would say its right next to sheffield if you were to look on a map! maybe an hour or an hour and a half drive away.