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So I tried a GB.Buckingham and Sons "razor"
I mentioned it in yesterdays SOTD, but though it deserved a thread, for any noobs that might stumble over these "razors"....
There was a thread about these a while ago, this is the razor in question: Vintage Straight Razor | Straight Razor | High Carbon Steel Straight Razor with Exotic Pakka Wood | VintageStraightRazor.com
A guy on another forum bought two and sent me one to check out.
At first it apperared nice enough, not bad looking scales really, even if they are way too large for the blade. But the blade centered badly, with the edge hitting the side of the inside scales.
It took a look at the edge it came with under 100x magnification, holy crap what a nightmare of an "egde", super super coarse, and small chips and really really ragged, a complete disaster.
"Honed" with one of these:
Attachment 81303So naturally it was honing time. Starting on a DMT 325 to clean up the mess. The moment I put it down on the hone it was clear that the blade also is quite badly warped...
So rolling X-strokes would be the tune of the day. Next I went to a Chosera 1k to set a bevel. Which seemed to take forever, but I managed to set one that (barely) passed my regular tests for a decent bevel.
After that it was honed on my regular progression of Shapton glass stones, monitoring with my scope every step. Finally a few laps of CroX and a good stropping. The edge looked fine in the microscope and even popped a few hanging hairs, so it was time for a shave.
Did an extra good prep , and whipped up some nice Martin de Candre and went at it.
The blade shaved, felt pretty nice actually , fairly smooth. The blade feedback had a different sound than any of my other straights though.
Halfway through the first WTG pass I stopped to check how much hair that was removed, and the first bad signs started to appear, it didn't shave much, but I continued on for full three passes(wtg,xtg,atg) with the blade feeling rougher and rougher.... When finished, it wasn't anywere near a good close shave, about par with a one pass disposable cartridge shave maybe.. Checking the blade again with my scope , I noticed a few small chips had appeared.... Needless to say, I had to finish with another razor to look presentable for work..
So today I gave it another chance, I fired up the Lv5+ Ozuku Asagi, which always delivers very sharp and really smooth edges. Started with a Tenjyou Nagura and finsihed with a Tomo Nagura, using circles and x-strokes until I had a really fine and polished edge.
So it was time for another shave, today using some luxurious Penhalogon's Endymion shaving cream, a top notch cream producing slick and wonderful lather.
Again it felt decent for like half a pass, then it started to pull and tug more and more, so it didn't last a full pass even this time... I picked up my Flaschner 7/8, and continued on, wow what a difference a real straigh made....
So it's pretty clear the a G.B.Crappingham razor from Vintagestraightrazor is nothing but a useless piece of shit, to put it politely.
The steel is totally unable to hold an edge for even half a pass, waaaay too soft to be used for razors. Completely useless.
Buyer beware.....
I'm sending the poor chap that bought these a nice Sheffield straight in return for giving me the chance to "experience" this one lol.