Thread: Dubl Duck Model Question

Originally Posted by Mijbil

Jimmy - you sure do have a knacking for generating wants, desires, and cravings of all sorts in me

I'll tell you something. I collect a particular Solingen razor brand that I have never seen mentioned on a shaving forum. I have 3 individual copies in various blade widths and styles and a seven day set of these razors. I have never mentioned the name and if you waterboard me you won't get it out of me. So be aware that anytime you tout a brand on SRP or any other razor forum you will drive the price up as well as generate interest in the item.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'll tell you something. I collect a particular Solingen razor brand that I have never seen mentioned on a shaving forum. I have 3 individual copies in various blade widths and styles and a seven day set of these razors. I have never mentioned the name and if you waterboard me you won't get it out of me. So be aware that anytime you tout a brand on SRP or any other razor forum you will drive the price up as well as generate interest in the item.

(Looking around for a smiley of Smiley running around room banging head on walls in frantic desperation - will have to settle for . I actually put sort of too much time into the logic behind that sequence. Think of it like those math worksheets - "Dittos" as we called them in my school - you used to do it school with the stories told by the little pictures.)

Just thought you should know - Words. Have. Consequences.

Ah yes, funny Dubl Duck anecdotes... Time for my favourite, I think.

A retired Dovo master craftsman said that when Dovo made the last DDs, they were ground by apprentices, because they were produced for the export (read: the US) market.

Asked why they behave so well on hones, he said, "that is because they are ground too thinly. We never could have sold them in Germany."

So here we have someone who was actually part of the heyday of Solingen's razor manufacture. And he has such a low opinion of razors which some of us believe to be the bee's knees. It brings a smile to my face (not just because of the perfect shave I gave myself with a 7/8 Henckels Friodur this morning).

Regards,
Robin

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Ah yes, funny Dubl Duck anecdotes... Time for my favourite, I think.

A retired Dovo master craftsman said that when Dovo made the last DDs, they were ground by apprentices, because they were produced for the export (read: the US) market.

Asked why they behave so well on hones, he said, "that is because they are ground too thinly. We never could have sold them in Germany."

So here we have someone who was actually part of the heyday of Solingen's razor manufacture. And he has such a low opinion of razors which some of us believe to be the bee's knees. It brings a smile to my face (not just because of the perfect shave I gave myself with a 7/8 Henckels Friodur this morning).

Regards,
Robin

Ahhhhh! The truth! Bresduck/Pearlduck was just another importer/retailer who brought in German crafted razors and had a full line to sell. The metal is just like most other Solingen made razors - good quality tool steel - no more and no less. The Wonderedge being cryo hardened carbon steel was the only razor in their line that was in any way different from other manufacturers except for the aesthetics. They are good razors, but as I have been saying for a long time; almost any razor coming out of Solingen has the potential to be the "holy grail" of shavers.

Originally Posted by John Crowley

Ahhhhh! The truth! Bresduck/Pearlduck was just another importer/retailer who brought in German crafted razors and had a full line to sell. The metal is just like most other Solingen made razors - good quality tool steel - no more and no less. The Wonderedge being cryo hardened carbon steel was the only razor in their line that was in any way different from other manufacturers except for the aesthetics. They are good razors, but as I have been saying for a long time; almost any razor coming out of Solingen has the potential to be the "holy grail" of shavers.

This is the real deal. The more you try various old Solingens that you've never heard of the more you realize it.

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Ah yes, funny Dubl Duck anecdotes... Time for my favourite, I think.

A retired Dovo master craftsman said that when Dovo made the last DDs, they were ground by apprentices, because they were produced for the export (read: the US) market.

Asked why they behave so well on hones, he said, "that is because they are ground too thinly. We never could have sold them in Germany."

So here we have someone who was actually part of the heyday of Solingen's razor manufacture. And he has such a low opinion of razors which some of us believe to be the bee's knees. It brings a smile to my face (not just because of the perfect shave I gave myself with a 7/8 Henckels Friodur this morning).

Regards,
Robin

Originally Posted by John Crowley

Ahhhhh! The truth! Bresduck/Pearlduck was just another importer/retailer who brought in German crafted razors and had a full line to sell. The metal is just like most other Solingen made razors - good quality tool steel - no more and no less. The Wonderedge being cryo hardened carbon steel was the only razor in their line that was in any way different from other manufacturers except for the aesthetics. They are good razors, but as I have been saying for a long time; almost any razor coming out of Solingen has the potential to be the "holy grail" of shavers.

Ahhh yes the fabled DD myths come out even on this old thread...

May I say but this..

Obviously the thousands of DD owners must be wrong, and they really don't know that these razors are no better than all the other Solingen razors.. It is but their imagination that these are by far some of the most consistent blades to cross a hone, that they consistently give great shaves, yes all just a myth...

Again I make the same offer anyone wanting to sell these lowly DD's that are no better than all the other Solingen razors has to but contact me, I am a buyer....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Ahhh yes the fabled DD myths come out even on this old thread...

May I say but this..

Obviously the thousands of DD owners must be wrong, and they really don't know that these razors are no better than all the other Solingen razors.. It is but their imagination that these are by far some of the most consistent blades to cross a hone, that they consistently give great shaves, yes all just a myth...

Again I make the same offer anyone wanting to sell these lowly DD's that are no better than all the other Solingen razors has to but contact me, I am a buyer....

We have no control over what fantacy land others live in.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Obviously the thousands of DD owners must be wrong, and they really don't know that these razors are no better than all the other Solingen razors.. It is but their imagination that these are by far some of the most consistent blades to cross a hone, that they consistently give great shaves, yes all just a myth...

As far as I can tell, that's about sum of things, yes. I suspect that dubl duck's (esp the wonderedge) place in legend was mostly a matter of circumstance. It was "discovered" just as SRP was taking off and razors were flooding onto ebay, it is sufficiently available for enough guys to get them to maintain interest (as opposed to Chronik), yet not so available that just everybody can get one (like a similarly good Prima Klang or Bergischer Lowe), they're readily available in excellent-to-mint condition, and having a suggestive name like "wonderedge" as opposed to something like "merde de cheval" certainly didn't hurt things either.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Again I make the same offer anyone wanting to sell these lowly DD's that are no better than all the other Solingen razors has to but contact me, I am a buyer....

Just because I don't think it's any better than the other upper-tier Solingens doesn't mean I want to sell. For whatever reason the DDWE has become a benchmark razor, and is worth owning just for that. I have a very low opinion of my Chronik but it's still not for sale either. There's more to a razor's value than pure shaving functionality.

Just my take on it, ducks are usually easy to hone and take a great edge. Other Solingen razors of a similar thin grind are also easy to hone and take a great edge.... but not all of them. IME the Wonderedge is not so easy to hone. Maybe it is the cyro hardening or since I've only gotten one copy maybe it is just mine..... or could it be .... gasp.... me ?

Brummels, Bartmanns, Revisors, some Dovos from the Fritz Bracht era and a number of less well known Solingens have been every bit as good as any duck I've got and I've got more than a few. Matter of fact I recently scored a 7 day set of Kobars that I would put up against any duck.

Of course I'm not partial here-har har, however with all the ducks I have the thing that does it for me is the consistancy of quality that runs through all of them whoever made them. Certainly there are loads of razors out there that shave every bit as good as any duck but collect 25 or 30 of them and see if they are consistantly the same.