Thread: Help me identify this ebay razor?

Hi all, first post. Just purchased my first straight razor via ebay for just under £15 and looking for some advice before i use it, -

VINTAGE GERMAN MUSSEL CUT THROAT RAZOR TORTOISESHELL HANDLE
On offer here is a very handsome German cut throat razor. On one side of the blade it says" Finest Razor steel, Forced Real Hollow Ground, in Germany" and on the other "Hand Forged" and presumably the name of the maker "Mussel". There is a lovely handle made out of tortoiseshell on both sides.
It measures 6.5ins long and is in excellent condition.

It may or may not be real tortoise. I can't tell from the pictures - it is difficult to do so. Dunno about the blade though.

Looks a lot like a re branded Dovo. It also looks like it will clean up quite well an more than likely be a great razor. Enjoy!

Clean it up , and have it properly honed before you try to use it .

Absolutly send it out to be honed. That way you know it is shave ready. Then enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to SRP. I see you are in the UK so Steve (forum member blueprinciple) would be a honemeister who is in your neck of the woods. You could get in touch with him and see if he would be into cleaning it up and honing it to shave ready. He is the proprieter of The Invisible Edge here. You'll need a strop if you don't already have one and forum member Neil Miller is in Essex, UK and also knows his way around a hone. He has strops for sale here.

Before you shave with it check out the beginner's guide in the SRP Wiki here.

Thanks for the advice, I've e-mailed Ste from TIE but i guess he's still on his Xmas hols. No rush as the razor has'nt arrived yet any way. Regarding strops i did buy this one off ebay but i'm now seeing theirs more to this than i initially thought so i'm going to have to study the newb threads. Thanks again all.

Ebay description-

'FIRST BRAND'. FINEST TRADITIONAL ENGLISH 3.8 mm VEG TAN (PIT TANNED) COW HIDE .
TOTAL WORKING AREA 2" x 15" WITH PIT TANNED LEATHER - 300 YEAR TRADITION.
AND THIS STROP WILL LAST 100 YEARS.
(THE CHEAP STROPS HAVE THIN LEATHER AND ARE IMPORTED)

Originally Posted by TenorClef

Thanks for the advice, I've e-mailed Ste from TIE but i guess he's still on his Xmas hols. No rush as the razor has'nt arrived yet any way. Regarding strops i did buy this one off ebay but i'm now seeing theirs more to this than i initially thought so i'm going to have to study the newb threads. Thanks again all.

I'd watch out for the metal tabs on the corners of that strop, or put some tape in front of them to act as a delimiter...

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by TenorClef

Thanks for the advice, I've e-mailed Ste from TIE but i guess he's still on his Xmas hols. No rush as the razor has'nt arrived yet any way. Regarding strops i did buy this one off ebay but i'm now seeing theirs more to this than i initially thought so i'm going to have to study the newb threads. Thanks again all.

It appears that the strop is a single piece with no linen ? If it works out that you need a two component strop you could always convert that one to be your occasional pasted strop. Good advice from Neil to watch out for the metal tabs.

Here is a the 1961 barber manual excerpt, a great tutorial on stropping and honing, from the SRP Wiki help files. The last couple of pages are on stropping and give very good instruction for starting out correctly.