Thread: Best of the Best, Vintage and New

Originally Posted by JOB15

Vintage Sheffield are the best of the best.
We all agree on that.
Thank you

NO no no Solingen is the best of the best. No, wait a minute American is the best of the best or is Japanese. Oh I give up.

Bob

Originally Posted by Pithor

I also wouldn't consider Ralf Aust, Revisoren or Wacker mass producers (or Koraat, for that matter), and I would take any one of those over most "customs" I have seen over the last ±7 years any day.

And not just because of price but also design and the fact that I prefer hollow ground razors. Most custom makers don't offer hollow ground, or if they do it comes at a premium.

I know this is much based on opinion. Still, I wouldn't consider recommending a custom razor over e.g. a basic model Ralf Aust sage advice for a new shaver.

snip....


I very much consider Ralf Aust, Revisor and Wacker as straight up artisans rather than mass producers.

Pithor, I also don't consider these as mass producers.

And grind is also a personal preference as well.

Maybe being a bit more clear, a Gold Dollar is a mass produced razor that most likely will not give you a good shave without some "professional" help to get it shave ready. As well as many of the "less expensive" razors offered on some big sites like Amazon. Now go to most shaving sites, like SRD or Shave Nation, and they offer good razors. SRD razors will be shave ready when they arrive. To me this is very important.

As to some of the custom producers, I have numerous razors from them, and they are all top quality and give an amazing shave.
The vintage razors, as long as they are in the proper condition will also give you a great shave.

I think your mentioning Wade & Butcher as well as Filarmonicas, they are both companies that did produce quality razors. And as many here will attest, the Sheffield steel is a bit different for some reason, and shaves better than much of the modern steel. As well as holds a better edge in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Dieseld

Pithor, I also don't consider these as mass producers.

And grind is also a personal preference as well.

Maybe being a bit more clear, a Gold Dollar is a mass produced razor that most likely will not give you a good shave without some "professional" help to get it shave ready. As well as many of the "less expensive" razors offered on some big sites like Amazon. Now go to most shaving sites, like SRD or Shave Nation, and they offer good razors. SRD razors will be shave ready when they arrive. To me this is very important.

As to some of the custom producers, I have numerous razors from them, and they are all top quality and give an amazing shave.
The vintage razors, as long as they are in the proper condition will also give you a great shave.

I think your mentioning Wade & Butcher as well as Filarmonicas, they are both companies that did produce quality razors. And as many here will attest, the Sheffield steel is a bit different for some reason, and shaves better than much of the modern steel. As well as holds a better edge in my opinion.

As for mass produced razors, I consider Dovo, Böker, possibly Thiers Issard (I'm not sure about the magnitude of their operation) as well as Gold Dollars to belong to that category.

I don't necessarily consider custom razors, Sheffield razors or Filarmonicas inferior razors. Custom razors simply don't check a lot of boxes for me for what I look for in a razor.

As for Sheffield razors, the lion's share of the ones I've come across had geometry issues to some degree, much more so than 19th century and modern production Solingen razors.

As for Sheffield steel, I hesitate to ascribe any specific qualities to it, as I don't believe there was such a thing as homogeneous, consistent Sheffield steel (contrary to Swedish and modern steels used by Herkenrath) due to the vast number of forges there must have been in the area.

I find it hard to ascribe differences to the steels used. Grinds are obviously also a big influence on how a razor behaves on the hones, and I find it hard to determine the causes of discrepancies.

Also, I haven't noticed any significant differences in edge retention between different steels (maybe stainless is a bit tougher in that respect).

I'm not a big fan of putting things (and people, for that matter) on a pedestal. Which is why I have refrained from dubbing my preferences 'the best'.

Most razors, vintage and modern, will make decent to good shavers.

Best regards,

Pieter

Thanks, I appreciate your reply.
I think we are getting to understand each other opinions better.
All in all I do agree with most of what you've said.

Thanks again, to all that have replied. Its been a wealth of knowledge. Speaking of which, some of you really seem to know your history on straight razors, any suggestions as to where I can learn more? Is it just me or is the internet becoming harder to find things? There was I time I could type anything in and bam there it was, first link, no need to search further. But now days....