Thread: A note on French Razors.

First of all let me say that I do not mean to offend any French members.

I have just come back from a buying trip to Lille in France.
I was amazed at the poor condition of razors on offer! I did manage to get 2 Thiers Issard in fairly good condition a few other French razors with a couple of German & 1 English but the vast majority of blades were just worn out.
In England the poor blades are either rusty, badly chipped or tapered with bad honing.
In Lille they were just worn out with stropping, big smile on most blades & one nearly had the wear on the spine & edge touching. I mean these razors were clean, no rust & people had been using them in this condition?
On the face of it seems to me that the French are very frugal & don’t waste money on new razors when there is any metal left between the scales!

Tony H

It might just be that they use them because they still shave well.

This ofcourse has to be considered against the alternatives of the rusted, chipped and badly honed English vintage offerings or the new variable quality non shave ready offerings that come out of the current French and German workshops.

I ofcourse exclude the exceptional quality Sheffield razors you sell in my broad critisism above.

This is something I have considered before in that razors in “poor” condition don’t wear out quickly!
These well worn razors have been used for years, in what we would consider worn out condition!
May be in France a rural family with 2-3 males all used the same razor? If they couldn’t afford one each they certainly wouldn’t buy a new one when it was showing a little wear!

I suggest that maybe an experienced shaver could try a “well worn” razor with a big smileMeant frown or badly tapered blade & see if they still shave efficiently.
And thank you for your comment about the razors I sell!
Tony H

I don't know- it sounds like the condition (varying) of razors you'd find anywhere. Also, you can't "wear out" a razor by stropping so are you sure you were looking at poor quality stuff? Most of the blades in my collection have big smiles because they were made that way/supposed to and I prefer them that way.

Still sounds like you found maybe 7 that you bought though. Not too shabby. In any case, too bad you didn't find more good stuff!

Opps I Meant the razors had a big frown.
I should have taken some photos of the poor razors!

I wish I had got more but did get some other items to sell on ebay

Just uploaded the photos of Lille if anyone is interested Hotel was nice! & No that is not me, I was on the other end of the camera.
taylor1000_photo/My digital Photos/Lille Sept 2008 - Page 1 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photo of the razors I did buy!
http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/i...rent=lille.jpg

Looks like you got a couple nice framebacks! Just curious why you chose to go to Lille in particular?

Originally Posted by Philadelph

Looks like you got a couple nice framebacks! Just curious why you chose to go to Lille in particular?

Went to Lille because there was a 3 day fair selling everything & I sell other things on ebay besides razors. Went for a look & see what I could get, it was a bit of a holiday as well.
Thought I would get more razors but I had a good time so it wasn’t a waste.