Thread: King Otto

I've been using a shavette for a couple weeks now and that's actually going OK but meanwhile I bought a razor off ebay which purports to be "shave ready", having been through a multi-stage honing process, stropping, etc..

The thing is when I shave with it (and I do strop it before shaving with it and make sure it can cut through a standing hair on my arm) it's not quite holding up. For the first few strokes it's ver nice indded. Close, comfortable, feels easy... but about halfway through the shave things change and it starts to pull and leave less than desirable results.

I suspect that it may not have been sharpened properly but I also wonder if it may be that the blade is just not especially good quality metal and may not ever hold an edge well. If that's the case I'd probably stick it in the drawer for now and replace the blade later because the scales and felt lined leather case it came with are very nice in my opinion.

Anoyone ever heard of this brand, or have any tips for how to tell whether I'm dealing with a sharpening problem or a metal quality problem (short of sending it in for sharpening, which seems a sensible course but wondering if I can tell without waiting two weeks for it to come back).

The blade says "King Otto" on one side and on the other side is says:

Otto Steinen Supply Co.
Los Angeles, CAL.
Made in Germany

I'm not in a place where I can post a pic right now but I think the pic is still up on ebay:

King otto 4/8 shave ready straight razor Faux Tortoise - eBay (item 130335799323 end time Oct-14-09 13:07:59 PDT)


Appreciate any tips or advice.
Thanks,
Charlie

Your "mysterydoll" seller probably has never shaved with a straight to know what "shave ready" truly means. I don't know anything about the king otto company but I've gotten a couple blades that were made in Solingen for companies here in the U.S. Kind of a general practice for someplace like Joes hardware to order a lot of razors from one of the German producers with their company info on it. Try a Google (or other search engine) search for the King Otto company and see what comes up. I'm sure others here will have more information to share.

Good luck.

I have one, but mine say's King Otto on one side, and "Otto Maussner & Son Philadelphia Germany. I suspected it was a Solingen knock off, In any case, it's a good shaver.
You might want to sent yours out for a proper honing, if it's worth it to you.
Rule that out, go from there....

Rich

Thanks guys for the info. Good to know that there is at least one out there that is a good shaver. Knowing that I'll go ahead and take the chance to have this one honed professionally and see how it comes out. Will post once I have a verdict (which could be 2-3 weeks from now).

Thanks again.
Charlie

It's a pretty razor , but it looks like it has a "frown" honed into it which IMHO will require a major edge restoration . I think you wuld be better off saving this razor for honing practice , and looking for another razor with less severe hone wear , to send to the honemiester .

Originally Posted by hornm

Your "mysterydoll" seller probably has never shaved with a straight to know what "shave ready" truly means. I don't know anything about the king otto company but I've gotten a couple blades that were made in Solingen for companies here in the U.S. Kind of a general practice for someplace like Joes hardware to order a lot of razors from one of the German producers with their company info on it. Try a Google (or other search engine) search for the King Otto company and see what comes up. I'm sure others here will have more information to share.

Good luck.

I mean, given the fact he pyramid-ed on a 4k/8k and stropped shows he probably has read something here, or watched Lynn's dvds, dunno why else he would pyramid, and stropping shows he shaves so....

Looks like a great blade. My first was a 4/8's wedgier grind and I love it. I think you will too.

Originally Posted by Charllie

Thanks guys for the info. Good to know that there is at least one out there that is a good shaver. Knowing that I'll go ahead and take the chance to have this one honed professionally and see how it comes out. Will post once I have a verdict (which could be 2-3 weeks from now).

Thanks again.
Charlie

Oops , I just looked at the ebay page again , and I see it is "shave ready" . Please let us know how it shaves you . Maybe the pic makes the blade look worse than it really is .

hmmm... well... OK let me ask you guys something. If you have used a shavette in the past, how many passes in general to you find that you need to make with a regular straight razor in order to get as close as you were getting with your shavette?

I had my doubts about the King Otto and/or the honing job but then yesterday I received my Wolverine in the mail freshly back from honing (by the master himself). I had not used the WOlverine before today, and even though I could tell the Wolverine was notably sharper than my king otto, it still took a lot more time to get as good of a close shave as I was getting pretty consistely with my shavette type (I say "shavette" here as a generic term...mine is not one of the nice Dovo shavettes, it's a cheapo that I got off ebay @ 9.95 for a package of 2, and the 9.95 included a box of derby blades!). I do like the fact that the regualr straight is a bit longer than my cheapo shavette blade but still it seems to be taking more passes this way.

Is this typical? Welcome any thoughts.

Thanks,
Charlie

Bah....problem was me.

Got a nice shave with the Otto today. I guess the technique/angles you use is just a bit different with a regular blade vs. a replaceable type. Anyway I seem to be getting good results now. Thanks again for the tips and advice given.