Thread: Is this Engels worth a try?

So I found this Engels while crawling around the interweb, do you think she'll fix up real nice? How much should I pay? (I know this is open ended, so I'll rephrase, how much would YOU pay?) The one scale is chipped pretty bad, but I don't mind. There is a tiny nick visible in the bottom pic, should be able to be honed out I think. Looks like medium hone wear. What do people think of the potential shave quality after a trip to a honemeister?

Well, the Engels razors are nice shavers, but this one may need more TLC than you are ready to get into. I'd wait to make a decision until you hear from a more experienced restorer, but I'd surf the Classifieds if I were you. Several decent blades were posted today at very fair prices IMHO.

I dunno. Right now I have extra money (aka I had to cash my tax refund, which I didn't want to do, cus now that I've cashed it I'm gonna blow it all) so I'm looking to buy a few razors, some as Restos, some for now, some as put some effort into it and have someone else hone it, even if they are an ugly duckling. So I don't mind about the scales, and if a honemeister can put an edge on it, I'm interested. Price is the deal breaker for me. So in my opinion, from what I've heard, Engels's are good shavers, so I'm thinking this is a clean up+send out for now, but maybe a good investment for new scales later? I dunno. Maybe thats a better question. Is that what this razor should be viewed as? And if it is, how much should I pay?

One scale is snapped near the pivot and though it seems to be holding it may fall apart soon so plan to replace the scales. The toe appears to be more worn than the rest of the edge so when sharpening you will have to pay close attention to that area because when shaving is used more than any other part of the edge. And lastly you may want to remove the few rust spots before they get out of control.

Anyone will tell you, it is very difficult to asses a razor looking at the photos, may times the seller doesn’t know how to photograph shiny objects and most times simply "omit" or "forget" or “not an expert” (that last one is most common), and you never see the “fatal flaws” until you get the item in hand (or sometimes when you ask for close-up shots). However some restorers and collectors on this forum are good at it, but it comes from years of experience and wasted dollars buying junk from ebay and other sources, then attempting to fix.

Now just so you know, I am told it is “bad form” to discuss pricing in the public forum… but here is my humble opinion… Engles is a very good brand and you are almost sure of a good shave (all else being equal), so even if you don’t care about the aesthetics and simply want a good shaver don’t pay more than $15… and that includes shipping… That’s what I would pay.

If you go for it, and depending on how you want to finish the restore, be prepared to do some work… maybe a lot of work... There may be better deals out there. (Oh and BTW, I am not an expert)

Hope this helps my friend.