Thread: understanding how price vs. quality of a razor

Before I donate my 2 cents;
WW243 gave you a path to follow, to start you in this journey. The SRP forum is so deep in information with regard to a razor's price vs quality, it's like stepping off your 21' open fisherman into the Marianas Trench. Look a little closer by using the "Advanced Search" button, top right & putting in keywords that interest you. This returns the threads related to your interests. Members, including myself, love to answer your posts, but why limit yourself with only the replies in this thread.

First, in giving advice to a new person such as yourself, with regard to wet shaving, I would focus on the quality of the shave & don't tunnel vision on the "quality" of the razor. The end result of the shave is what I seek. I have gotten great shaves from $40.00 vintage blades from the classified section, a $7.00 antique store rescue & $250.00 Dovo's. To use your own analogy of cameras; as a young man I got into photography via a friend. He carried a simple Pentax SLR camera; I went out & bought an Olympus SLR with all the toys that fit it, 3X's the investment I made. His photos were always better than mine; because he was a better photographer. Three years later, I also bought a Pentax, still had crappy photos.

The razor that gives you a good comfortable shave at the beginning of your day, is a quality razor.

At least with the vintage blades I use, IMHO, price has absolutely nothing to do with quality. I have some of the more pricey vintage brands (Puma, DD, Filarmonica) and many unknown razors that would sell for next to nothing due to lack of name recognition, and once they're all honed properly they're all excellent shavers. I've never bothered with modern blades, and why would I when I can get a beautiful, excellently made vintage blade for under $50.00. Case in point (no razor puns intended) this Tucker Regent in excellent condition, picked up at a local antique store for $40.00.

The key to your question is what you mean by "quality." I assume you mean closeness and comfort of the shave. The most expensive razor I have is a mediocre shaver that resists all attempts (even by professional honers) to bring it up to first tier. My best quality Dovo is a first-tier razor.

So I would agree with some of the earlier responders: there is NO correlation between cost and quality -- as defined above.