Thread: razor identification and tips

Okay, Newbie here with my first Brand new Dovo razor (thanks for the christmas present, honey) What a great wife. Anyway, to learn how to hone I went antiquing today and picked up seven razors for $10 each. I took pics and looked up some of them on the threads here. I was hoping for any insight. My goal is to find 2-3 for practice, honeing, cleaning, restoring etc and then possibly ebay the rest. I will post a few pics, i can post more if needed.


The first pic should show 6 of the razors....

top left: Dubl Duck special #1
top right: genco master barber (looks like it says gen VA USA)
middle left: says Radium on the blade with H Boker & Co on the handle
middle right: smaller blade.. Herm konejung solingen 42
bottom left: Holley on the blade. very nice scales. marble look to them
bottom right: Diamond razor Co. blade says "the diamond: price $3.00)

The missing one from the pic is a Krusius Brothers Germany. the other side says 26 KB (something)

I looked on the forums and got a little info about most of them, and I had read a little about Dubl duck, so when I saw it for $10 i just bought it. It appears to be in ok condition. I am attaching a few closeups of some of the blades.

So anyway, these are just for practice. I wouldnt mind restoring them, or selling them to someone that wants to restore. At the moment I am mainly looking to sterilize and hone a few for practice. So any thoughts would be helpful. For example, if the dubl duck is better off in the hands of a restorer than mine for practice then great. I was thinking the radium, the Holley and the Diamond razor might be ok for practice.

Do they all have etchings on the blades? As it would be a shame to loose such nice detail to an amateur restoration, I would recommend leaving those for later, once you have more practice, or sending them to a pro.
Otherwise, seems like a very nice haul. The Dubl Duck and Boker should be excellent shavers once restored.
Personally, I would probably start with the genco, for a first restoration attempt. For that matter, are any of them wedge grinds? something hardy that you do not have to worry about accidentally bending or breaking would be a good place to start too.

Someone has already ground the shoulder off that Dubl Duck. I have one and it does not look anything like that. Don't get me wrong. It should be an excellent shaver and it is by no means "ruined" - it just won't have as much value as an original shaped blade.
Zacsdaddy

Agree with Zacsdaddy. The dubl duck is fine for practice, but I would not plan on selling it, as you wouldn't be likely to get the money out of it that you invested. The missing section of blade might not be something you'd notice at first, but trust me, to anyone who has seen a DD Special before, it leaps off the page, and that would be most of your target market. There's one or two decent DD Specials for sale on eBay right now, so you can see what the intact razor blade looks like for comparison.

GOOD LUCK WITH THE HONING, and looking forward to hearing more about how it works out.

Oh I am not too worried about making money back or selling on ebay. I may, just to get rid of the ones I do not want. My main point is to pick a decent 2nd and 3rd razor for practice and use, and then get rid of the rest, or use them for practice. I just did not want to take a really good razor and ruin it with practice. It would be a shame if I ruined a rare-vintage blade out of ignorance.

My second reason is to make sure I dont practice shaving on a crap razor. If one or more of these are not worth my time to even practice honeing then that is great to know

lt

I want to say thanks for the input guys. I appreciate it.

These two razors here seem to be mini razors, or very worn. They are the Genco and the Herm kenejung. I took pics next to a full size razor. The spines show signs of honing but no so much that I would think the blade is half gone, plus the scales are about have the size of the other razors.

Are these supposed to be this size? if so, what is the purpose? just another type of razor to shave with????

Thanks