Thread: Blue Wonder - IS it real, Are they good?

I'm looking at buying a blue wonder that some one got from an estate sale.

I was hoping some one could give me a little info on this guy, Age, quality, apparent condition. ect.



Any info would be much appreciated.

Well it looks to be in good condition. It is a vintage blade from a reputable area. If you buy it send it out for honing and shazzam you are ready to shave. It looks like no hone wear and original finish square point about 6/8. Nothing else I can add, but I'll bet someone more knowledgeable will be around.

There is info here http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ue-wonder.html . The one you have is vintage and like new from the photos. It has a blued tang and spine that does not look like it is even faded. I'd go further and guess that may even be the factory edge. To me it is a quality piece in prime condition only judging by a few photos though.

Bob

Very cool, thanks for the info.

Ill give it a shot. i was going to grab a coticule and a golden dollar razor to practice with, although i have a lot of experience honing knifes, Ive never honed a straight razor before.

They are exceptional shavers, and that is in near mint condition... PLEASE do not mess up that razor learning to hone that would be a Cardinal Sin

Originally Posted by Daekkon

Very cool, thanks for the info.

Ill give it a shot. i was going to grab a coticule and a golden dollar razor to practice with, although i have a lot of experience honing knifes, Ive never honed a straight razor before.

Please forget that you have a lot of experience honing knives, it is "not" the same as honing straights. Approach honing a straight as if you have never honed a knife and are learning a completely new art. There have been a few guys with knife honing experience join the site and have posted latter that honing a straight was more difficult than they anticipated with their prior knife hone expertise.

Step away from that Blue Diamond with hones until you have gained enough skill not to take a chance on damaging the beautiful razor. A vintage razor in that condition and of that quality is definitely not a practice honing razor candidate. By all means practice on a cheap razor or two and I don't mean a Gold Dollar. The Gold Dollar is on the sites avoid list for a reason.

Bob

Very nice looking in wonderful condition. The Blue Wonder trademark belongs to Ewald Plumacher of Solingen Germany. As far as dating your razor the earliest entry that i found was 1928, and also found an advertisement from 1950. Nevertheless enjoy this gem!

Originally Posted by BobH

Please forget that you have a lot of experience honing knives, it is "not" the same as honing straights.

I started honing razors quite recently after years of honing knives and tools, and I agree in part with that - it is indeed not the same, but I don't think there's any need to forget it. I do think having the experience can be a help, as long as you know it's going to be different and are able to switch off your knife-honing muscle memory - for me the switch-off happens naturally anyway, because I'm just not holding the razor the same way.

From my experience, I already knew a fair bit about steel, bevels, angles, burrs, wire edges, stone progressions etc, and that definitely helped me - even if not that much in practice, it did mean I knew what everyone was talking about.

I actually found razor-honing in some ways easier than knife-honing, because you have the gift of the spine to get exactly the right angle, and my results so far have been very positive.

And in one case my knife-honing experience was more directly helpful, after I got a razor that had quite a big chip in the edge. I honed it out freehand with the spine off the stone, the way I do with knives, and then set a new bevel the usual razor way - that saved a fair bit of time over doing it flat on the spine or fannying around with tape. (I know it will also have changed the bevel angle a little, but just doing it once and then going back to normal spine-flat honing will only make a very small difference.)

Alan