Ralf Aust vs Filarmonica vs Dorko vs Other vintages.

Hello all :) I'd like to ask for a little of help about purchasing a vintage razor. Basically I have a 7/8 carbon steel Ralf Aust which I love but sadly don't use quite often as I have been quite busy and don't even have time for shaving. Hopefully this will change but I was thinking of buying a cheap gold dollar or a vintage stainless steel razor to make things easier unitl then as they require less maintenance.

Problem is, after looking for a razor.. I want to buy ten. :rofl2: For example I can buy this stainless steel dorko which looks like new:

Attachment 323972

But I can't avoid getting attracted to these two carbon steel filarmonicas (which could be complemented with a cheap stainless steel gold dollar for quick shavings on the rush):

Fil 1:

Attachment 323975

Fil 2:

Attachment 323976

Attachment 323977

Attachment 323978


The are also some other filarmonicas and some french/german vintages used in worse condition but often cheaper: Rasseti, Mann and Federlein, Kabeso, Manos, Koufman, Henckels, Wester & Butz, Edel Stahl, Focus, Diamond Steel -this one looks nice', Albero Hoppe, Gerb Weyersberg, a rusty Puma and others. I know some of these are considered good ones but can't spend that much time getting a master degree on vintage razors right now (also I have to buy fast for many reasons..).

So the questions:

1. Do any of the used/shortened/rusty ones could be considered "special" enough to buy instead of the filarmonca or the excelent looking Dorko which seems ideal to use as the main every-day shaving razor? Also I have to say I have stones to sharpen an a dremel if needed to restore. I know many others brands can be found internationally but the shipping, taxes and exchange rates makes them prohibitive for me.

2. Will one of those filarmonica shave better than my Ralf Aust? Of course, I'd like to have one just for the joy of having one, but would they "teach me" something new about shaving? Because having a nice ss vintage for every day use is also attractive and buying both a filarmonica and the dorko would be too much money I think. I'm not a millionaire or collector as for now.

3. Is the Dorko a really good one? Or is just a regular one and buying a much better filarmonica + gold dollar is clearly the way to go? They cost the same. Are these filarmonicas really good ones? Better than the Dorko?

4. Can the stains of the filarmonicas be cleaned without damaging the gold coating? Removing stains and gold completely but leaving the rest intact maybe could be ok. I preffer my razors to look like new and the stains kinda screw it a bit.


That's all I think. Thanks a lot, hopefully I can get more into this hobby and participate more on the forum.

Dorko Filarmonica and Henckels are great brands. Other brands I do not know from personal experience.
Good, better best: a matter of personal preference.
You will have a hard time preserving the gold print of the Filly.
Gold Dollars are hit and miss.

The 13 Filarmonica JMP DT with blue scales, last photo, looks like it is a first generation and just may be the best of the bunch. Just send it out for a good honing. My two cents from your current situation comments and photos shown.

Nice, thank you. Definitelly I'll get the Dorko and maybe the Filarmonica too because it's very rare to found them here. Only because of covid and our economic hell, people start selling souls and razors. Bye bye money.

PD: Still, does it makes sense to buy a CS Filarmonica when having a nice CS Ralf Aust? Of course it would be very nice to have one in the collection, but in terms of shaving and honing, it's going to be more or less the same as the Ralf Aust? That Aust It's the only straight razor I ever used.

Excelent, thank you ajkenne, I'll take that. There are also older FIlarmonicas available but far more costly or rusty.

This one also looks very good but I don't like that green very much. It costs the sames as the others.

Attachment 323985

There are certain well known German vintage straight razors which have a cachet attached to them and command a premium. That ignores literally hundreds of lesser know vintage Solingen makers.

https://www.archivingindustry.com/cu...azormakers.htm

I have a number of those made by the lesser know makers and can find no fault with them and the shave is equal to the well known makers that I have. Personally I would not discount the lesser known ones out of hand.

Vintage stainless steel razors have one big advantage and that is they do not rust as quickly as a regular carbon steel razors will if mistreated. Stainless steel Vintage stainless steel razors still need to be honed on occasion and stropped regularly just the same as a vintage regular carbon steel one would.

With vintage razors condition is everything and I would get one in the best condition I could afford. As always a vintage razor of any make can have factory flaws just as it is true of currently made razors. Pretty does not shave so you will pay extra for gold, etching and so on over a plain blade of the same maker but the blades all come from the same process.

I do not own a Gold Dollar razor as I have read their quality control is hit and miss.

Bob

Nice, thank you. And yes, when I search those names I found nothing but nice comments. Sadly it's not possible to fully study them all and even then it would be a lottery. And those rare models are mostly used and/or rusty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by usu

...I was thinking of buying a cheap gold dollar or a vintage stainless steel razor to make things easier unitl then as they require less maintenance.

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What makes you think that a vintage stainless steel razor or Gold Dollar would require less maintenance?
As such assumption is in itself incorrect, there can be no correct answer to your question.

If you want a straight razor that requires as little maintenance as possible, you would be well served by another Aust, but this time a stainless steel one - and possibly in a somewhat niftier, more manoeuvrable size like 5/8 or 6/8.

If anything, vintage razors require more maintenance and Gold Dollars seem to have wildy varying tolerances that may require significant work and expertise to get them shave ready.

There are quite a few excellent stainless vintage stainless steel razors out there, Henckels Friodurs and Filarmonicas in particular, but none of these requires less maintenance than a stainless steel Aust.


If you want minimal maintenance, you might also want to consider the Feather Artist Club DX razor.
This is a replaceable blade razor, but unlike Shavettes and other replaceable blade razors (including the Feather Artist Club SS) the Artist Club DX model handles and feels closely similar to a traditional straight razor, but eliminates the need for honing and stropping.


Hope this helps...



B.

As said above. Go the the Feather S.S. model if you want less maintenance. Any real straight needs maintenance, honing, stropping. Its part of the game. SS or not. And IMO stay away from the China made piece of trash called the Gold Dollar! Its not worth the postage. IMO!

Thank you both. Having to hone my razors is not a problem for me, I have to do it once in a while so I can wait the right moment to do it and I like to do it. The problem is when I'm working hard (programming) and my beard start to tingle and I'd like to shave but do not have much time to do it or my brain is too focused and I just forget about the whole thing until I have to cut the beard with paper scisors just to avoid the tingling and nothing more (I work at home so I don't care very much how it looks). So by complementing the carbon steel Ralf Aust (7/8 double hollow, it's very nice) with another stailess steel razor at least I won't have to thoroughly dry, oil and save the razor which is the annoying part for me when I'm too busy and can easily forget to properly do it on time. If I leave the shaving kit next to the toothbrush, and I don't have to remove the oil, and then dry it, re-oil it and save in a drawer in my room, chances are I'll use it more. Don't know exactly why but my CS razor starts to rust very easily so I have to take a lot of care to avoid it. As for the stropping I do a few passes in the palm of my hand so it's not very much of a problem I think. Maybe I'll get a strop too, I don't think it's going to be problem to use it.

Also I'm buying a Wahl cordless detailer so if I'm too focused in my work I'll just remove the whole beard with that. If I have a little more time I'll finish with the stainless steel razor, this combination at least will save me from having to leather twice, I have three soaps and all of them dry very fast. In cases where I have more time I'll just do the entire shave with either the stainless steel or the carbon steel razor. Don't know if this is going to work, never used a clipper/trimmer before. I can leave feedback if anybody is interested.

Btw, I know stainless steel is not 100% rust resistant. Can I leave it in the bathroom or it will rust? Maybe inside the original box or a bigger one with silica gel?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by usu

.... If I leave the shaving kit next to the toothbrush, and I don't have to remove the oil, and then dry it, re-oil it and save in a drawer in my room, chances are I'll use it more. Don't know exactly why but my CS razor starts to rust very easy so I have to take a lot of care to avoid it. As for the stropping I do a few passes in the palm of my hand so it's not very much of a problem I think. Maybe I'll get a strop too, don't think it's going to be problem to use it.

Also I'm buying a Wahl cordless detailer so if I'm too focused in my work I'll just remove the beard with that. If I have a little more time I'll finish with the stainless steel razor (This combination at least will save me from having to leather twice), or if I have more time just do the entire shave with either the stainless steel or the carbon steel razor. Don't know if this is going to work, never used a clipper/trimmer before. I can leave feedback if anybody is interested.

Btw, I know stainless steel is not 100% rust resistant. Can I leave it in the bathroom or it will rust? Maybe inside the original box or a bigger one with silica gel?

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Allow me just a few comments:

As mentioned before, in your situation there is no real advantage in buying a vintage stainless steel razor, let alone a Gold Dollar - a brand that is known for poor quality control.

Keeping a stainless steel razor in a well ventilated bathroom will probably have no ill effects on the razor, but neither is it a recommended practice.
Until I retired five months ago, I was based less than 1 km from the sea in a location with high humidity where summer temperatures regularly reach 42ºC and above. After shaving and drying the outside and area between the scales of the (carbon steel or stainless) razor that I had used that day, I left the razor in the bathroom to dry for 24 hrs before replacing it. Before placing the razor into one of the razor storage cases in my study, I would treat it with Ballistol oil. As I have >70 razors it would take some time before I would use the saem razor again, but Ballistol worked very well during the storage period and corrosion was never an issue for me. If not Ballistol, closer to the U.S. you may be able to find Tuf Glide in a 4 oz spray bottle that serves the same purpose.

For me, palm stropping works for the initial stropping of replaceable blades of my Feather AC DX razors, but I doubt that in the long run it will perform adequately for straight razors.
Thus I consider a good strop essential.
To minimize expense a simple Herold loom strop might do, but my preference is a French-made Strop-it Supex 77 paddle strop (with exchangeable plattens) and a Norwegian-made 3” Scrupleworks oil-tanned Horween horsehide strop.
Kind of Eurocentric choice and not necessarily easy to find, but I found that these strops worked better for me than anything I picked up from North America or Japan (meaning Kanayama Cordovan strops).

Regarding a bread trimmer, I recently bought a (cordless) Braun BT7220 that comes with two adapters, allowing you to mow down any bread growth down to between 0,5 and 20 mm (adjustable in 0,5 mm increments). A straight razor should make short shrift of a full grown beard, but if time is of the essence you could easily maintain a presentable 3-day stubble with such a bread trimmer.


Good luck....


B.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beluga

Allow me just a few comments:

As mentioned before, in your situation there is no real advantage in buying a vintage stainless steel razor, let alone a Gold Dollar - a brand that is known for poor quality control.

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Thank you, but seriously If i cant get rid of the ultra-meticulous drying and oiling step of the carbon steel, I thinks it's good enogh for me to use it more often. Thank you anyway but I'm still going for the dorko 8/8 stainless steel. I'm not always THAT busy so even if it do not makes things much easier, it would be nice to have it. I'm also going for the filarmonica (carbon steel), the price was fine and it's a beautiful one so maybe I won't have another chance of getting one in the future.

Quote:

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Keeping a stainless steel razor in a well ventilated bathroom will probably have no ill effects on the razor, but neither is it a recommended practice.
Until I retired five months ago, I was based less than 1 km from the sea in a location with high humidity where summer temperatures regularly reach 42ºC and above. After shaving and drying the outside and area between the scales of the (carbon steel or stainless) razor that I had used that day, I left the razor in the bathroom to dry for 24 hrs before replacing it. Before placing the razor into one of the razor storage cases in my study, I would treat it with Ballistol oil. As I have >70 razors it would take some time before I would use the saem razor again, but Ballistol worked very well during the storage period and corrosion was never an issue for me. If not Ballistol, closer to the U.S. you may be able to find Tuf Glide in a 4 oz spray bottle that serves the same purpose.

For me, palm stropping works for the initial stropping of replaceable blades of my Feather AC DX razors, but I doubt that in the long run it will perform adequately for straight razors.
Thus I consider a good strop essential.
To minimize expense a simple Herold loom strop might do, but my preference is a French-made Strop-it Supex 77 paddle strop (with exchangeable plattens) and a Norwegian-made 3” Scrupleworks oil-tanned Horween horsehide strop.
Kind of Eurocentric choice and not necessarily easy to find, but I found that these strops worked better for me than anything I picked up from North America or Japan (meaning Kanayama Cordovan strops).

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All of this is very useful. Maybe a spray oil is the solution (I do it with the finger..). But still the whole rusting thing makes me nervous, once I forgot to wipe the drops for some minutes and now it has some dark spots :/. I was needing advice on strops, thank you.

Quote:

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Regarding a bread trimmer, I recently bought a (cordless) Braun BT7220 that comes with two adapters, allowing you to mow down any bread growth down to between 0,5 and 20 mm (adjustable in 0,5 mm increments). A straight razor should make short shrift of a full grown beard, but if time is of the essence you could easily maintain a presentable 3-day stubble with such a bread trimmer.

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I have been searching information on trimmers, as I understand the good ones which can give a close shave are the ones capable of zero gap alignment. This leaves most models outside except the BabyLiss pro, Wahl detailer, Andis t-outliner, and maybe some other more rare models. Even the good Gamma absolute hitter (also capable of zero-gap) seems to be worse than the others when it comes to close-shaving, based on reviews. I think the better ones could give closer than 0,5 and that would be very easy to finish with a single light pass of a straight razor if needed. Also I think those models should be the most durable as they are intended for professional use.

I never oil. No need. I dry with a towel after the shave and set it aside until the next day. No real work.

There's three razors I won't touch. Anything that's a RSO, Made in Pakistan, or a gold dollar. Though there are others, those three are the most common.

I've got hundreds of different razors, all shave great.
How well a razor shaves, in comparison to others, all depends on the hand that hones it, what stone or how it was finished, and the hand that wields it during the shave.

That's my story...yep, stickin with it, too.!

I'm not so sure the benefit of a Gold Dollar being easier upkeep is either true or, if it is, really worth the trade-offs. In my opinion, the real value in a Gold Dollar lies in when you're learning to hone or restore and you can afford to really mess around and screw things up.

Anything other than a razor you actually want to shave with is a waste of money; save it, and put it into something you really want. Any of the ones you suggest will be great, but I think I'd actually suggest just using your Ralf Aust.

Thanks, I know gold dollars are crap but many people seems to have good shaves with them after removing the stabilizer and making a new edge. I was thinking of getting one because they are very cheap even here, some local sellers bought them in bulk. In contrast to buy a Dovo I have to apply this formula: 1.95 * (price + international_shipping) * 75 so a 100 U$D razor becomes 18.000 AR$, a pile of money.

Thankfully for me, because of covid and our bad economy some people started to locally sell their vintages at reasonable prices, those are definitelly worth spending more than 900AR$ for a gold dollar. But still I had to convince myself.

I just tried the Wahl detailer. It definitelly shaves closer after zero gapping, of course it's not as good as a straight razor but it did a god job improving a two day beard on my first use, then I can barely improve that with a braun series 3 foil shaver. Although It was very agresive on the neck area, maybe I have to better learn to use it or leave just a bit of a gap to make it smoother. With the factory adjustment it leaved hairs at 0.5, maybe a little bit less.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gasman

I never oil. No need. I dry with a towel after the shave and set it aside until the next day. No real work.

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Are you talking of carbon steel or stainless steel? I tried just cleaning drying and saving the razor in my room within the original box without oiling but I had bad results doing that. Maybe because my razor already had those little dark rusty spots so maybe they started to re-rust more easily. I don't remember very well how it went, but It was bad and I just started to meticulously dry, oil and save my razor every time and this makes it unpractical as I also have to clean the oil before each use. Not a problem when life is peaceful and there is plenty of time but too annoying otherwise when even having to shave or take a bath seems barely possible.

Any Razor!
I dont oil any of them and I have over 200 razors. Vintage from all types. From late 1700s to late 1900s. I keep my razors in this chest...

Attachment 324132

Living in Colorado I have lower moisture in the air compared to your area I would bet. But still. I gave up oiling or waxing or any treatment as I found it not needed.
as they say...
YMMV

You can make or buy a felt lined wood box. A old machinist trick to protect very valuable precision tools. It creates a micro climate you can store your carbon steel tools in high humidity environments. Just dry it and put it away for the next use.

Thanks, I'll do it. Still I just became a newbie collector so I'm not returning the old Filarmonica and the stainless steel Dorko which looks awesome to me.

Gasman, I'll catch you someday :gwh: maybe not.

Keep in mind I'm just the average joe razor in this group of fellas. You will get there if you hang around.

Hello again. I just received the filarmonica and I really love every aspect of it. Although it has one defect: the width of the blade is not even. It's 19.8mm at the toe and ~20.6mm at the tip. The spine has ~0.5mm of wear (I assume the original shape of the spine didn't had that flat line) but it's really even so I don't understand very well what's going on. Also, the last 1.5 cm of the edge at the tip is damaged (almost half the width of the edge is gone) so I'll have to do some work on it. I found it to be very easy to hone so I don't think it would be much of a problem to do it, I'll be patient and careful. But I'm curious about the uneven width of the blade, could be a factory defect or it's just bad honing of the previous owner? It's one of the older models (I think) and it's really beautiful, I can get newer ones (2nd gen) in much better shape but those are not as beautiful as the one I have. Honestly I'd really like to keep it but don't know what to think about the uneven width of the blade. It's enough of a problem to forget and return it?.

Thanks :o

Tapering blade needn't be a problem. Hone it and see if you can get a keen edge on it.