Thread: Can anyone tell me if this is even worth anything?

I've got a Boker King Cutter (In the photos you can't see that it says King Cutter as it is too darkened), 1920-30.. because of the absence of "Tree Brand." It's just the tree stamp, with H.Boker&CO and then Solingen underneath it. The other side of the tang says Germany. I don't know anything about razors.. i'm only a teenager and i'm a girl so.. i don't use straight razors, but I bought this for a school project on ebay for 40$ and I would like to resell it, but I'm wondering how high I can even go with the price..(yeah greedy I know) The Scales look like just black plastic, nothing special there. The Blade is round point, and really darkened not from rust but maybe just that's what happens to metal? (I have no idea at all here), I definitely see a tiny bit of rust, and a very small chip, but aside from that I think it actually might still be useable, and it really just needs a good polish, or not.. I don't know if that would ruin it's charm or the blade it'self or something. If my research is correct, the grind is like.. if i looked at the razor straight on to the tip? SO it would be 1/2 hollow grind.. I think.. I'm not sure, anyway that's the best I can do to describe it, when it's closed it's around 5.5inches long.. I don't know what you do for blade measurements at all.. I mean it's pretty small.. my tape measure says 3 inches.. Any help would be appreciated! thanks

Welcome to the site. Worth Anything? Ya it's worth something but that can be very subjective. This is a good shaver if restored properly, in it's current condition it can go two ways. Serious collectors who want original everything and no restoration. Or the user (most of us here) who clean up razors to use them. Your statement of $40 off ebite er bay would seem avg for a razor in the current condition. But again that is subjective as these things can be on the bay.

Sorry I don't know if anyone can give you the answer you really want. You could put it back on the bay and see what happens...

Ive picked up 6/8 king cutter's from the same time period in better shape for less on the bay. Just sayin.

Moderator note: Valuations are not allowed in the open forum. Please don't ask.

Now, welcome to SRP. Bokers are well regarded razors that produce a good shave. Restoring razors or even just a damaged edge can increase the cost of the razor significantly. Good luck with your purchase.

Clean it up with a high quality polish like maas, flitz or simichrome and a rag. use of power tools should not be considered for your first restoration. and then you high grit wet/dry sandpaper to sand it up to a nice shiny level, re-polish it , there is a nick in the edge so i would not recommend trying to hone it yourself, razor honing is way different than knife sharpening.send it to a honemeister and start shaving your legs! you will love the shave over what you are getting with you cartridge shaver, and yes lots of women do use them.

blades are measured both by the width of the blade and the length of the cutting edge, 3" is a normal length and the width is expressed in either 1/8" or 1/16" increments blade sizes for that model should be in the 5/8" to 13/16" range. i would say it is a full hollow ground blade not a half hollow.

i have 2 king cutters and they are great to shave with.

so what sort of school project is this for?

enjoy,
jim

Thankyou guys all! The project was a WWI "letters" project, and I had to create letter and send them back and forth from a soldier to anyone else, and in some of the letters you had to send artifacts, so I went on ebay and bought it to send over to my soldier Myabe I will just polish it up adn get it honed.. I dunnno, maybe the barber in my town might just want it and I'd give it to him for his collection, whatever I decide thankyou guys all again for the help!

thats an awesome little project. You would be surprized how much you might just like the shave it gives you lol. I would deffinatly clean it up and have it honed. there are many people on here in the classifieds section who will clean and hone your new blade for not much at all. Give it a shot! You would be the "cool" girl who shaves the legs with a straight blade lol. take care

If you want to know what similar objects fetched, ebay has a completed listings feature that will show you what other Boker razors sold for.

Originally Posted by maryka

Thankyou guys all! The project was a WWI "letters" project, and I had to create letter and send them back and forth from a soldier to anyone else, and in some of the letters you had to send artifacts, so I went on ebay and bought it to send over to my soldier Myabe I will just polish it up adn get it honed.. I dunnno, maybe the barber in my town might just want it and I'd give it to him for his collection, whatever I decide thankyou guys all again for the help!

Well the straight razor may not have been the best choice... ww1 saw the big switch to the double edged safety razor. mainly because it was simple to use in the field and a good way to make sure that the troops had a clean shaved face so that the gas masks would be able to seal right.

In a fantastic marketing move Gillette actually gave the razor handles away and then like today charged for the blades. naturally after the wartime usage many men had gotten used to the DE and did not revert to the straight razor of their youth.

here endeth the lesson,
jim