FWIW --
If you want a "first razor" to shave with, I'd suggest the general advice here:
Buy a "known-good", "shave-read" razor before you hit the antique shops.
From what I read here, and my limited experience, most of the old razors were made of good steel. They were luxury items, finely-crafted, and often well-treated by their owners.
My first razor was an antique-shop razor, a Wade and Butcher, for which I overpaid. But it sharpened up nicely and shaves well. I learned a lot about rust, and how it works through steel, and honing, from sharpening that razor.
I started going around to antique shops with a 10x loupe, to check edges for little nicks and rust spots, on any razors I see. Once in a while, I find something nice, buy it, and sharpen it.
Here's my pricing logic (and it's still developing):
I can buy a "known-good", well-honed vintage razor from the SRP Classifieds for around $50, or from
Whipped Dog Straight Razor Sales for $33. It may not be beautiful, but it'll shave well.
An antique-shop razor, unless it's
really special, won't be worth more than those. And I have to sharpen it myself. So it's worth less than $33. [I haven't found any "really special" razors yet.]
Old razors
can have "hidden flaws". My most-recent purchase had a warped blade -- I discovered that during sharpening. The possibility of such a flaw keeps my "offer price" low.
People call the inexpensive antique-shop blades "project razors". If you do damage while sharpening, it's no big deal -- not a lot of time or money invested. And you might end up (as I have) with perfectly decent shavers.
My best purchase was a Boker spike-point, half-hollow razor. "Oh, that's the broken one -- $7". Even after buying a set of new plastic scales, I did OK.
Note that I'm treating this as a hobby, not as a way to chop hair off my face. They're two very different things.
I guess my advice is:
. . . Go slowly, and don't pay too much.
Sorry for rambling --
Charles
