Thread: Deciding on Razors...

So, on my third antique shop/mall on my way home, one finally had some straights. More than half a dozen... for $14 each! And I was told the seller was willing to negotiate on the price. There was an ERN, a J. A. Henckels, something labeled "magnetic" (and actually was... why?), and some unmarked ones. All were unusable for various reasons: pitting, corner broken off, slight-to-moderate frowning, 50%~ish rust covered , and I think the Henckelshad a chip about the middle of the blade roughly the size of the ball in the tip of a ballpoint pen . One or two, according to the gent shootin the breeze with me while I looked them over, had bakelite handles. He bout fell over himself when he saw 'em.

I was just looking for a beat up SR on the cheap that I could teach myself to hone on. For $14 or less, I think I'll get 1 or 3 lacking rust/pitting.

I can probably get pics in 2-3 days, if y'all would like.

So what do ya think? Decent find?

I'd say pass on them,,, stay away from any razor with a frown,,, especially if you are learning to hone.
keep your eye on our classified section, at least 3 or 4 times a day. Razors from $35.00 to $50.00 come & go all the time that are great razors.

or place an ad in the trade section with something you are will to part with for a razor.

If the scales were good buy
them cheap and clean up the scales to trade for something you like!

Originally Posted by Hirlau

I'd say pass on them,,, stay away from any razor with a frown,,, especially if you are learning to hone.
keep your eye on our classified section, at least 3 or 4 times a day. Razors from $35.00 to $50.00 come & go all the time that are great razors.

or place an ad in the trade section with something you are will to part with for a razor.

I would follow Hirlau's advice & stay away from a frown. You will spend a lot of time & lose metal & end up with a blade much narrower than you want. Keep shopping & be patient while you shop. You will eventually find something to your liking & will be glad you waited. Hang in there & you will be glad you did. It's so funny I see razors with really bad frowns to them on the bay & they will want outrageous prices for them as if they were made of gold! They waste money just listing them hoping some poor sucker will buy it & i have seen some with frowns that has bids on them, ones I would steer way clear of!!!! Your patience will be rewarded if you wait.

I pulled the trigger on the ERN. No chips/blunted spot. Some pitting, but well away from the edge. A rather significant spot of rust on back of the tang. The edge isn't laser-straight, but I wouldn't say it has a frown. I don't know enough about scales to say they are original, but I would guess no in this case. + A Barber's Notch.

Hmmm... seems the forum isn't fond of uploads from my phone. I'll circle back around to the pics tomorrow. Still, $14 isn't bad for something to practice honing on.

Lets try this.








So she needs a bit of finesse... and to be cleaned up. Obviously only so much can be done with this, but it wasn't bought to be my primary, or even alternate shaver. And pieces of the case were crumbling off while taking the pics.

once you take care of the built up rust and hone it, that will be a very good shaver. Hollow ground blades are also much easier to hone that wedge types.

Originally Posted by Crawler

Lets try this.








So she needs a bit of finesse... and to be cleaned up. Obviously only so much can be done with this, but it wasn't bought to be my primary, or even alternate shaver. And pieces of the case were crumbling off while taking the pics.

I have looked at the blade several times & at first I thought I saw a very slight frown but I do need a new eye exam. I came to the conclusion that the blade looks good to me & a good cleaning would be good for it. If you took the blade out & did some hand sanding on it, that would make a good project plus some different scales would be a treat. You would end up with a very nice shaver.