Manganese Steel

I picked up a Wester Bros. Anchor Brand razor from an antique shop yesterday and wanted to know if anyone has any experience with it. It says that it's made of Manganese Steel which I'm not familiar with since I'm a newbie. My Dovo is on its way courtesty of SRD:)

It looks like the scales are a bit worped. Minor wear on the tip where the point and the edge meet. However, I'm wondering if this is something I should invest it or keep it to practice stropping and honing.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

-travec

They are good razors. I've got a couple of them. It seems for awhile some of the Solingen companies experimented with Manganese steel. I also have a couple of Bartmann razors with that marking. Wester Bros made a heck of a lot of them over many years so they must have been a good seller. I would say practice honing and stropping with it assuming you haven't got a lot of $ in it. Here is some general info on that type of steel.

I have a Bartmann 504 Manganese Steel razor. It takes an awesome edge with very good longevity.

Thanks Jimmy, for sharing that link. I have googled myself about Manganese steel, but never found such extensive information.

Best regards,
Bart.

back in the day there were no consumer protection laws so people could advertise things anyway they wanted and it was strictly buyer beware.

You will see razors advertised with terms like tungsten steel, manganese steel, carbo-magnetic and all kinds of things and the fact is pretty much all steel contains manganese and carbon and tungsten and a lot of other things. They are just trying to make you think their razors are something special.

Most razor steel was bought as blanks from suppliers so the stuff was pretty much the same with just a few varieties being used from supplier to supplier or country to country no one custom made their own steel from scratch in a factory setting.

Well this is all good news. Honestly, I was a bit nervous about what I got but I'm glad to hear that someone has used this type before and is happy with the results. I paid $27. Not a bad deal in my opinion but again, I'm a newbie and know that I know nothing. It seems that one of the scales is worped and I'm curious if I can/should try to fix that or just replace the scales all together.

Again, I appreciate everyone's opinion and support. I'm glad my buddy roped me into reading about straight razors because this is a lot of fun.

....Now for the first shave.

Best of luck on the shave. You might want to check out SRP founder Lynn Abrams suggestions for an easier transition here.

As far as the scales being warped. If it is a gentle warp and doesn't interfere with the opening and most importantly the closing of the razor it is purely aesthetic. If the blade edge wants to hit the scale that is no good. Otherwise it is just a matter of whether the look of it bothers you.