Thread: Unknown razor maker- fishy?

So I was searching on eBay, and in a roundabout way, this razor came up-





I thought it looked great, and a lot like some of the customs on this forum, it's 9/8ths, stylish, etc. However there is no maker's mark so I decided to msg the seller to ask if he was on SRP to find out a bit more, and got a response that he wasn't a member here and that "the finish was coming off the razor" (not even sure what that means, it's steel...) and therefore he couldn't sell it to me. 5 minutes later he sent me another msg offering the same razor, but for half the original price (which was roughly in the ballpark of other customs i have purchased from some of the usual suspects around here, so that didn't immediately throw a red flag). Opinions? Should I walk away from this one? The razor LOOKS legit, but everything else smells a bit odd to me.

Offer him the bridge you have in Brooklyn for sale as an even trade. You'd come out ahead on that one despite the spurious nature of the razor. I'd only swap with no money exchanged.

Maybe he tried to gold wash it ?? The photo is on wood of the same color but that is all I can figure out from the conversation. It looks custom and he should know who made it. At least tell where he got it. Desperate to sell means nothing but to hold info or avoid answers is a giant red flag for me. In fact the red flag is mounted on a big truck with 200 smaller flags under it. Then again the maker might pop up in here and ???


second look.....The spine looks mighty thin.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Maybe he tried to gold wash it ?? The photo is on wood of the same color but that is all I can figure out from the conversation. It looks custom and he should know who made it. At least tell where he got it. Desperate to sell means nothing but to hold info or avoid answers is a giant red flag for me. In fact the red flag is mounted on a big truck with 200 smaller flags under it. Then again the maker might pop up in here and ???


second look.....The spine looks mighty thin.

Yeah it actually looks like Ali's blades to me, and I wasn't concerned about it until the correspondence took an odd turn...

Update- he said there is a "copper coating" (on the spine, if I'm seeing it correctly) although if he is a layman it could be gold wash I suppose...

Copper looking if he put it away wet or left soap on it yep.

It doesn't look China made that's for sure.

If thats a 9/8s then the blade looks 2 inches long to me. I don't know.

I guess it is a different thing, but in the world of vintage pocket knife collecting, back in the '60s and '70s, the rule of thumb was that if a maker didn't think enough of his product to put his name on it chances are it wasn't a quality blade. Hard to say what that is, a foreign made blade with the stamping buffed off to hide where ti originated ? Call it a custom and charge the big $ and see if anyone takes the bait ?

Another update, the seller is saying he made it himself, and said to "ask paul, he's a member at SRP who has bought from me", so if Paul would like to come forward and shed some light, it would be appreciated!

Might be just me, and this of course is JMO...but if someone doesn't have the pride in they're work to put their mark on it then it's not for me. Or maybe its the fear of putting out knockoffs