Thread: Straights at local shop

I found a bunch of Straight razors at an antique shop, most of these look to be in good to very good shape. I'm still new, so looking for advice on weather these are good prices or not.

Boker Pearl, Pearl tang and blade ingraved with "Pearl" 40 dollars
Wostenhol Tally Ho horn scales 45 dollars
Gibson Deamon brown marbled scales (celluloid) 45
Solingen Redhead 45
Genco fluid steel 45
Ho boker no 1101 blade etched to say "india fine steel"

Are any of these worth picking up at these prices?

I'd appreciate any advice.

Hello,

Without any pics it would be hard for anyone to give advice. Generaly speaking for those prices there should be no excessive hone wear, no chips or warping of the blade,no rust, and no cracks or chips in the handle.Do expect to see some use of the razors, but look to see if they were used and cared for properly. A long time collecter/restorer may or may not say the same thing. Those are my standards for looking at razors. I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by superbleu

I found a bunch of Straight razors at an antique shop, most of these look to be in good to very good shape. I'm still new, so looking for advice on weather these are good prices or not.

Boker Pearl, Pearl tang and blade ingraved with "Pearl" 40 dollars
Wostenhol Tally Ho horn scales 45 dollars
Gibson Deamon brown marbled scales (celluloid) 45
Solingen Redhead 45
Genco fluid steel 45
Ho boker no 1101 blade etched to say "india fine steel"

Are any of these worth picking up at these prices?

I'd appreciate any advice.

You can check around the web and ebay and see what they're going for. Site unseen, A pearl boker, Wostenhol, Solingen, and Genco are most definitely worth 40-45 bucks as long as the blade is in tact, no extensive pitting or rust. No nicks or chips. Check and make sure it opens and closes correctly, not too sloppy, or too tight. Around the pivot pin, look inside for excessive build up of junk, hair, dna, dirt, etc...Sometimes people stupidly oil the pivot pin and that just creates trouble. Make sure there are no cracks on the scales by the pins that were repaired. Even a little pitting or rust can be taken care of with wet/dry sandpaper. A little honing and clean up and you have yourself a sweet vintage razor.

Rich

I second what Rich said in what to look for. I'd also add that you should flip the closed razor over and view the scales from the bottom; doing this easily shows you whether or not the scales are warped. I very slight almost imperceptible warp doesn't bother me personally. It's amazing how massively warped wavy scales sometimes don't seem apparent when looking at a razor from the top down.

When I'm in antique stores before I even go in I adopt kind of a "I'm not going to be interested in anything in this store" attitude. It's not the right attitude to have and I don't know why I have it, but I do. I think it comes from going into so many that end up either having nothing or having worthless crap. At any rate I'm looking for a bargain when looking for razors and rarely will I pay more than the range you've described unless a razor is exceptional.

Chris L