Vintage Razor Newbie Question

Hi:

I am a newbie on the hunt for a vintage razor and am running into so many brands, both US and European in a variety of conditions. Three questions at this point--

1) What degree of condition is acceptable? For example, can one use a blade with a moderate degree of pitting/ tarnishing/ rust? Or should I just look for the most perfect example and cough up $200+?

2) Some antiques clearly have been polished to a very high sheen and I doubt all of them started out that way. Does one have to worry about a substantial amount of material having been ground off, making the razor thinner? How can one tell if this has occurred?

3) Can one assume that most razors made prior to the 1950s contain quality metal? I am aware of the big brands on the list on this site, but there are lots of minor brands, both domestic and European that are not on that list. Is there a difference between famous make metal like Henckels and a not so well known domestic or Solingen or Sheffield make?

What I am getting from these forums is that for my first razor, I should spend a modest amount of money and have it professionally sharpened and determine if this is what I want to do. Plus, I do have an interest in collecting antiques and there are razors in local auctions/ estate sales that do come up.

Thanks,

Harry

First, welcome to SRP!

1) User grade blades shave just as well as the high dollar collector razors. With diligence, you'll be able to find plenty of good blades at your local antique stores.

2) Nope. most of the awesome restores you see are wedges and not full hollow ground blades and as a result, there's PLENTY of meat left on them.

3) Yes. In my experience, all razors (barring chips, cracks, frowns, or misc. defect) shave just as well or better than a new razor.

To be honest, you're not really going to want a $200 razor to be your first. As a newbie, you're more likely to ruin the edge through stropping or to ding it on the faucet. With a user-grade razor in shave ready condition, you should be able, not to avoid these problems, but to lessen the expense of the mistake.

If the razor doesn't have any cracks in the blade, doesn't have any pitting on the bevel and no chips taken out of the blade you should be fine. Rust can be scraped or sanded off. Many of us use razors with pitting on the blade from minor to moderate. As long as the bevel is clean of pitting and chips after honing and active rust has been removed you'll be fine.

Stick with Sheffield, Swedish, Solingen or American steel for the first few razors and you should be off to a good start. There are good finds in local shops that don't have rust, pitting and chips in the bevel for a good price. Having these defects will increase the price of restoring and/or honing so you'd be better off making a purchase w/o these problems at first, unless you are doing the work yourself.

Good luck.

The condition of the blade overall is not as important as the condition of the cutting edge. The cutting edge needs to be clear of rust, nicks, pitting, and should generally be in serviceable condition. As you gain experience there may be circumstances where some of these problems can be corrected. But starting out look for a good edge. Rust and minor pitting can be cleaned up, for a price, by others or yourself. But tools and restoration services cost money. For a new user a pristine blade is not necessary, but one that needs work may prove to be false economy. There are lots of good to excellent razors in the classifieds.

Steel removal to eliminate deep pitting can weaken hollow ground razors. How can you tell? I'm not sure I can tell you. I don't have the experience, but some of the restorations guys could. Highly polished blades may have come from the factory or renovation. Find NOS razors to compare the prospect razor with. Early wedge razors often were reground into half or quarter hollows, so regrinding them was common. The thinner the blade the more likely steel removal will cause a blade to become brittle. Some of this is due to the heat generated if improperly ground, some to removing metal.

I'm hesitant to say that all straight razors prior to 1950 are good. I do think the majority of US, Sheffield, and Solingen razors are made with quality steel. There are lots of fine razors from lesser known Sheffield and Solingen makers. Also Swedish, French, and Spanish makers.

I focus on vintage blades myself, I only have 1 new blade and that the SRP TI Limited Ed.

When first looking for vintage blades to shave with, your going to want to (as mentioned above) keep a close eye on that edge. One option is to just surf the classifieds here and you will be sure to get a reasonable blade at a fair price. Once you see a few good razors made from vintage stock you'll be able to start picking out the good ones else ware. Also if you know of any other SRP members close by... Going on road trips for razors is a blast :) (and a bit expensive lol if your find alot :p )

I'm always watching for mid to low grade razors that I can fix up. One, I can't afford the expensive ones and really don't want to get into a shooting war with collector pieces. So I go for the well used ones with lesser known names. Most have been very good shavers indeed, and a few are problem children haha.

Good luck on your searches :)

Hi:

I ended up finding three Kropp 6/8s in good condition, two of which were part of a set with the original leather box. I know that these are fairly common and not as sexy as some of the other Sheffield and German brands, but reviews here indicated this is solid first choice.

I will get these off to a honemeister to start me off right and will certainly have more questions regarding both shaving and stropping and honing.

Thanks for all the thoughtful advice.

HarryA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HarryA

Hi:

I ended up finding three Kropp 6/8s in good condition, two of which were part of a set with the original leather box. I know that these are fairly common and not as sexy as some of the other Sheffield and German brands, but reviews here indicated this is solid first choice.

I will get these off to a honemeister to start me off right and will certainly have more questions regarding both shaving and stropping and honing.

Thanks for all the thoughtful advice.

HarryA

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Good plan.
In the archives:
"Kropp is a fine Sheffield made blade. Most were ground in Sheffield, some were ground in Hamburg."
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...tml#post443643

So You have the Sheffield sex and possibly
a German grind...

Having them honed by a practiced hand is a good thing
and can get you well down the road to open blade shaving.


Since this is the 'newbie' corner one hint is to start practicing
lathering now. Ten bucks on a puck of Williams and a very
inexpensive boar brush can teach you volumes on how to
build a lather. Add too much water, too little, all at once
drip by drop. Take one, two, three minutes.

If you are not yet a wet shaver start wet shaving with
the least expensive tossable you can find. Something like
the yellow handled BiC for sensitive skin tossables will
help in the transition from not shaving or from electric
shaving... They are also a worthy safety net for shaving the
difficult chin and other difficult places while your hand
gets comfortable holding an open blade.

Lathering takes practice... so wearing out fifty cents
worth of an inexpensive soap is a good thing to do since 80%
of a good shave is about skin prep and lathering.