Thread: Trifecta

I picked up four razors at an antique store over the weekend. As a general rule I have found that if the particular vendor only has one they try to get close to top collector value. This particular vendor had probably 20 and I was able to pick out four and get them for a very reasonable price.
Out of the four I cleaned up these three last night and honed them all.


Torrey Razor Co. in original box.


Wade & Butcher in very nice Cattaraugue box


Dbl Duck Satinedge also in non original box


As I often do when I have honed more than one I will split the shave between the two or in this case the three. It didn't even really dawn on me until I had the lather on my face that I was covering the gamut of three of the major players in terms of production regions: one American, one Sheffield, and one Solingen. Too bad I didn't have a Japanese to throw into the mix.

I've always found it interesting that the steel from these three regions is different as is the grinding and the general character. Each razor shaves a little different but they all gave fabulous shaves. Which I prefer may depend on the day but I have to say I think my overall favorite region is Sheffield although the other two performed equally as well. I do have to say that I am very impressed with the workmanship of the Satinedge. That thing is so stinking thin. I would be willing to say that the cutting edge is equally as thin as a DE blade, maybe thinner. On top of that it is a bellied hollow grind which is amazing workmanship for something that thin. I had to work chips out of the Satinedge and the Torrey. On the Torrey it was at the heel and not even in the cutting edge so that was fairly simple. On the Satinedge it was right in the center of the blade so I lost probably 3/64"-1/16" but fortunately neither appeared to have ever even been honed or at least showed no hone wear and the blades were probably close to original width. At least I didn't lose the belly.

Nice looking lot.

Interesting statement the characters of each one makes:
The American is broad, roomy, simple but strong, smiling and seemingly unassuming,
The Sheffield is stylish, angular, tradition born, sweeping with a flair, genuinely unique
The Solingen is crisp, clean, precise lines, accurate, given more to accuracy than style but nonetheless top notch.

Funny how peoples can so bluntly exhibit their own character through production

You may want to correct the heel on the Double Duck to move the corner of the edge well forward of the stabilizer, BLUE arrow). The edge currently is well past/into the stabilizer, (BLACK arrow). The bright mark on the spine/tang (RED arrow) shows where the spine is rubbing and most probably keeping the heel half of the edge off the stone. When the heel is off the hone, as much as half of the edge may be off the stone, not just the heel.

A close up of the edge, will probably show an uneven bevel and that the heel may not have a fully honed edge.

Notice the difference between the Duck and the Torrey and where the edges end. The Torrey is well forward of the stabilizer and much easier to hone.

Typically, what guys do when the heel is not touching the stone because of the stabilizer, is to add more pressure. With a Double Duck the blade is very thin and will easily flex. When it does, the back of the bevel acts as a fulcrum and lifts the edge off the stone.

The heel can easily be corrected on a Diamond plate in a few strokes. There are several good posts on heel correction.

The stabilizer is actually not hitting the stone on that one. What you see in the picture is where I hit it on the diamond plate bringing the edge down to remove the chip. I actually did bring it down some but was cautious about bringing it too far as thin as that edge is. It may still not hurt to bring it down a little more though. Thanks Marty