Thread: Is there such thing as a bad "vintage" razor?

Just wondering if there are any makers of straights that produced shoddy work. Ie, poor heat treat, tempering, grinds, etc. Tried doing a search, couldn't turn up anything conclusive. And vintage means...older than WWII. Or maybe just a geographic area that produced razors of lesser quality than the well known, proven brands.

Thanks in advance.

Click on the wiki tab on top of the page, then scroll down to manufacturers and then to razors to avoid.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Click on the wiki tab on top of the page, then scroll down to manufacturers and then to razors to avoid.

Lol, never thought to look in the wiki. Thanks for that info. However, it does seem that the list is made up of new razor manufacturers.

I think it's interesting that there are no vintage razor brands on the "Razors to Avoid" list.

I've got a theory about why the vast majority of vintage razors are of good to excellent quality.

In 19th and early 20th century most general retail and hardware stores were run and owned by local shopkeepers who, for both business and social reasons, were highly motivated to avoid selling crap to their friends and neighbors. Therefore, if they sold a consignment El Crappo razors, they would quickly hear complaints, in their stores, their church and at the local diner.

The jobbers and wholesalers selling El Crappos would be inundated complaint letters and the line would be dropped from their catalog with alacrity. After losing money and goodwill, the distributors would be more careful in the future and test out new razor brands.

Alas, in this disposable consumer society, manufactures can get away with turning out El Crappos.

Originally Posted by shuredgefan

Alas, in this disposable consumer society, manufactures can get away with turning out El Crappos.

+1 and don't forget the barbers who were a big market in those days. These companies that make the cheap junk new razors probably don't know that people are actually attempting to shave with them.

I do wonder if there were poor razors. I notice seeing a lot of text on razors and boxes making "big play" of the words warranted, guaranteed and such. Maybe poor razors were sometimes encountered?
On the other hand, a cutler of the Victorian era wouldn't have had a problem getting suitable metal and men with the skills to temper and grind the stuff. I think some of the furniture (scales,pins and spacers) was bought in. I know in this country (the UK) skilled metal workers were two a penny.

I think all would agree that there are variations in performance, preference, edge quality, shaving, etc between vintage razors. In my limited experience I have not come across a vintage brand that I think is poor. However, IME some I like and think are better than others. I have a few that give acceptable shaves but overall I'm not as impressed with as other razors I have. I won't mention any brand names because I think it could come down to heat treat and hardness or lack thereof of individual razors. So, yes, I have a few razors that I think are "so-so" but none that I would consider to be poor.

Chris L

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

I do wonder if there were poor razors. I notice seeing a lot of text on razors and boxes making "big play" of the words warranted, guaranteed and such. Maybe poor razors were sometimes encountered?
On the other hand, a cutler of the Victorian era wouldn't have had a problem getting suitable metal and men with the skills to temper and grind the stuff. I think some of the furniture (scales,pins and spacers) was bought in. I know in this country (the UK) skilled metal workers were two a penny.

You might have a point there, refering to the warranted and garanteed on the boxes. However I think this is not because of poor quality brands being the competition. I think this is pure marketing and good to excelent brands competing among eachother. They had to advertise... the bad brands wouldn't have survived the preasure of the good ones.

Originally Posted by Chris L

In my limited experience I have not come across a vintage brand that I think is poor. However, IME some I like and think are better than others. Chris

+1 on that and on what fpessanha said about "warranted and guaranteed" being marketing ploys. Most all of the barbers I knew back years ago favored Solingens with Sheffields being a close second. The ones I knew never mentioned American made razors and that surprises me because the Case, Robeson and Cattaragus I have gotten are all first class shavers.

I guess if your razors were poor, you went out of business! Also, in the 50 - 100 years since they were made, most survivors were of the quality persuasion (other than those given as 'gifts' and stuck in a cupboard!) - the crap has long since been chucked in the bin!