Thread: Razor Catalog?

I may have missed it but I've been scanning the entire site and I haven't read anything about a razor collectors guide or catalog that is commercially available. It seems that with the myriad of old and new manufacturers, there should be some sort of guide to identification, rarity, history, price, etc (like for record collectors). Anyone have any knowledge of such a book?

Brad

Not sure that would be a good thing. That means that dealers and antique shops would have a price point in which to base on.

Yeah, as handy as that would be, it would almost for sure drive up prices more.

Originally Posted by GoDSpeeD

Not sure that would be a good thing. That means that dealers and antique shops would have a price point in which to base on.

Yes, maybe, but it would most likely bring prices down if they learn about quality, and that rust is a bad thing.

Do you think they would actually take the time to read?

I find nothing wrong with fair prices, as long as they have quality items, and a few more razor experts is never a bad thing.

icedog....check out the book ....STANDARD GUIDE TO RAZORS....3RD EDITION BY ROY RITCHIE AND RON STEWART.....check amazon , they had a couple the other day.....got mine about 4 mo ago, pretty good read on how to determine values and popularity......BUGSY

Originally Posted by BUGSY

icedog....check out the book ....STANDARD GUIDE TO RAZORS....3RD EDITION BY ROY RITCHIE AND RON STEWART.....check amazon , they had a couple the other day.....got mine about 4 mo ago, pretty good read on how to determine values and popularity......BUGSY

Hey thanks Bugsy!

I am not judging whether such a guide would be good or bad. That would obviously be a subjective issue. What I am interested in is the history of the hundreds of little razor manufacturers that used to dot this and other countries. There are many types of business that were once very important and therefore common and in many cases very local, like soda pop or seltzer water or milkmen. Today the remnants of those companies are considered by many to be collectable. I don't really care how "collectable" a razor may be but it would be cool to know when a given model was manufactured. I look at some old blades and I have no idea if they were made during WWII, WWI or the American Civil War. Companies opened and closed but before disposable blades, everyone who shaved did it with a straight razor so there are millions of them from hundreds of companies, some very small and maybe with very interesting histories.

More people today know Genco as Vito Corleone's olive oil company than as Geneva Cutlery Co.

Originally Posted by BUGSY

icedog....check out the book ....STANDARD GUIDE TO RAZORS....3RD EDITION BY ROY RITCHIE AND RON STEWART.....check amazon , they had a couple the other day.....got mine about 4 mo ago, pretty good read on how to determine values and popularity......BUGSY

Yep, I've got this book as well. I actually bought mine at an antique store. I'd recommend this book to anyone. It definitely does NOT have all razors manufactured, but there are tons and lots of great pictures to make you drool. The values and how to calculate them, although kind of neat, IMO really don't mean much. On Ebay, the winning bidder will pay what they have to pay to win. And IF antique stores DID price their razors by using the price guide in this book, I probably would buy almost no razors from antique stores. When I first got this book I misunderstood that the values for each razor are only the base value, then scale composition, ornamentation, etchings, washes, etc are added to get the final values.

Chris L