Thread: Urgent Help With Identifying Some Razors!

Good day all!

Please could You give me any details about the following razors. The first is a Wade & Butcher Special, the second is a J.A Henkel 78 1/2, the third is Unidentified, with wooden scales, hollow ground, and a chip of the blade missing(see photo), and lastly, another unidentified razor, almost flat ground with ivory scales, in a box(not sure if it is in its own box or if the box is from somewhere else).

Please could you give me any possible information on any of these. I am looking to buy them tomorrow (short notice, sorry) and any rough prices that they could be worth (or contact details for someone who could appraise), would be very much appreciated!


1) (See also Attachment)



2)


3 and 4 to follow.

Thanks for all the help!

Brad

forum rules dont allow appraisals here , the W&B and Henckels are popular brands and are in our razor wiki , i cant tell you dates off hand but if you type them in the search you will find loads of threads and info on the brands .. the W&B (1) looks pretty nice on my monitor with little use , the Henckels has uneven hone wear and maybe some light pitting under the rust ,looks like some dings in the edge under the rust spot , and with the rust on a hollow ground razor close to the edge the metal maybe bad in that spot , unless you want or can do corrective honing and light restoration i'd pass on #2 , of course thats just my .02

3)




4)

3) looks like it may have a slight frown , uneven hone wear again , the obvious chip and cant tell ya any info .. you could cut it down and hone the frown out , but again its a project razor ..

4) looks like a solid razor , a wedge , with possible ivory scales , my phone screen is shattered and im having a hard time seeing them but it looks like it would clean up nice and shave well , cant read the name to know if it is a quality maker or not ...
again im no expert and this is all my opinion but if i was looking at the 4 in a store i would probably pick up 1 & maybe 4 ( hard to say without seeing in person but #1 for sure if the price was right ).. if you have no razor honing experience i would find a member near you perhaps as a mentor if this is something you really want to learn and get in to and also have the razors professionally honed so you can start with a fresh shave ready razor ..

Number 4's box says: ARBENZ'S MANDARIN RAZOR, but no makers markings of any kind on the blade or tang, unfortunately. I am able to do a bit of work on them, and am fairly competent with some restoration, but nothing major.

Thanks for the help so far, and I am looking on this site to see if I can find any info

Those razors are all pretty rough and none is exceptionally collectable… I would pass on all of them.

The rusted ones will probably have some bad pitting and the broken one can be cut, repaired and re scaled but is not a razor that would be worth the cost of doing so.

No need to rush into a purchase, there are plenty of great razors in the wild. Buy razors in the best condition you can afford, you chances of ending up with good shavers are much, much better.

I would not pay more than $20 for the lot, which is why we do not give valuation, beauty and value is in the eye of the beholder, and my eye is squinting…

#4 looks more like bone than ivory in those pics, the blade looks salvageable
#3 & #2 look like the have seen better days with combined hone wear and rust
#1 may live to shave another day but the rust goes all the way to the edge and that can be death for a razor. The rust weakens the edge and it will never hold up to a sharpening. There is no way to tell if it sever going to be useable without a bunch of work. If it were me I would never buy those.

Originally Posted by RezDog

#1 may live to shave another day but the rust goes all the way to the edge and that can be death for a razor.

Number 1 has almost no rust, just light staining.. Please check which one you mentioned to make sure, not sure if i am missing something? Possibly talking about No. 2?

Thanks again guys! Much apreciated!

Yea, that's bone.

Yes. Number two has the bad rust spot on the back of the blade. #1 is actually fairly clean.