Thread: Poor Quality Vintage Razors?

You can look up the congressional hearings from the 1930s I believe on import tarifs. There is some discussion about inferior quality razors imported from Germany. We've talked about these in the past, but I don't have the time to look up the threads.

As far as personal experience, I've seen poor quality vintage razors. Of course, it depends on what you consider as quality, but poor grinds, mediocre edges both qualify for me.
A lot of the early 19th century sheffields are not very good either - even if they have survived without abuse the steel doesn't take a good edge. Of course, there are exceptions and I love them but the technology back there just wasn't up to snuff.

Old Sheffield and solingen steels can't compare to modern steel. Although the vintages are very nice, if I had to take one and only one into the woods, I would take my modern TI.

I don't know, I haven't been big fan of modern steel other than some customs. I keep getting c135 TIs, probably gone through close to 10 of them and it never did anything for me. I still have a silverwing or oakwing, and may be about 15 vintage and pre c135 ones. That's why YMMV.
For the woods I'll probably get one of my nice sheffields or heljestrands.

Originally Posted by bill3152

Old Sheffield and solingen steels can't compare to modern steel. Although the vintages are very nice, if I had to take one and only one into the woods, I would take my modern TI.

If I can take only 1 razor to the woods,,,well I guess that means I'm not coming back,,,so give me the most steel I can carry, a Sheffield full wedge. After the shave starts to pull,,,I'll just quit shaving with it & use it to fillet trout or clean squirrels with it.

The talk of the old Sheffields got me thinking of the model of 1903 Springfield rifles that blew up receivers during WWI. They found that the armorers, tempering by eye rather than utilizing a pyrometer, were getting widely varying results depending on whether it was a sunny or an overcast day. While they had pyrometers back in the mid 1800s I would bet that the guys working in some of the cottages, even with some of the bigger firms, went by eye rather than by the gizmo.

When you get past the early 1900s, certainly after WWI, when Gillette and the DE was really popularized, I think the majority customer for straight razors were the professional barbers. Those guys quickly separated the wheat from the tares. If a company made razors that were substandard, for the primary customer base, word would spread quick IMO. So the quality had to be up to a high standard if the company was going to survive. In the 1980s, when I used to go around to barber shops in Northern N.J, looking for old straight razors, individual barbers, in their 60s and 70s, cutting hair and shaving for 50 years, told me that their favorite razors were dubl duck, FWE and that any Solingen razor would be a good one. Sheffields too, they said. This is guys from one end of Newark to another who didn't know each other.

Other than customs the only modern razors I have experience with are quite a few TI, a couple of Dovo, and a Ralf Aust. These are high quality and some are as good as any vintage razor I've had. In general I've only run across a few duds in my pursuit and I'm not always sure if that was me or the razor.

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Perhaps you have to define poor quality ????

If you define it as "Will it take and hold an edge fine enough to shave with" then I have found very very few poor quality Vintage razors, and those could have been abused over the years to get there...

If you start to get a bit more technical, and start to define poor quality, in grinds, warps, etc: then things begin to change...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Perhaps you have to define poor quality ????

If you define it as "Will it take and hold an edge fine enough to shave with" then I have found very very few poor quality Vintage razors, and those could have been abused over the years to get there...

If you start to get a bit more technical, and start to define poor quality, in grinds, warps, etc: then things begin to change...

Well, I posted a link as the source of what I was asking. Here's the first chapter:

"First-class tools are necessary at the very outset. No matter how skillfully one may handle inferior tools, they will invariably produce poor results. Probably as many failures have resulted from the use of poor razors,
strops, or soap as from the lack of knowledge how to use them.
In order that the best possible results may be attained, good tools and skill in using flicni sliould go hand in hand.
The shaving outfit should consist of one or two good razors, a first-class strop, a mirror, a cup, a brush, a cake
of shaving soap, and a bottle of either bay nnn. witch hazel, or some other good face lotion. These constitute what
may be considered the necessary articles, and to these mav be added a number of others, such as a good hone, magnesia or talcum powder, astringent or styptic pencils, antiseptic lotions, etc. wdiich. while not absolutely requisite, will nevertheless add much to the convenience,, comfort and luxury of the shave."

And the author continues to mention it throughout the book. I think I've come accross the advice in most older shaving manuals, which is why I started thinking there must have been a lot of dudd razors floating around. In this case, I assume he means they won't take or keep an edge, or have been rushed through production. (The only vintage razor I used which I thought fitted the bill was a W&B chopper. It had a warped spine, so honing was fun, and the edge never seemed good past one shave. Perhaps that explains why it was given to me. But that was one particular razor, not a make.)

Thanks for all the info guys, I've enjoyed reading.

I have also read the same...

BUT

I also put no more weight to those old books then I do to opinions presented right here everyday, they are after all simply one person's opinion..


I do however put quite a bit of weight to my own personal experience from honing and restoring 1000's of Vintage Razors, sometimes I want to say that the bad ones have been weeded out over the years... NOS razors however temper that response, I do remember some razors that hit the market a few years back NOS that many people across the forums still brag about, yet fully 30% of them had serious steel issues in the heel..

Yet if I were to type the name the response would be "I own one and mine is great"

Take any opinion with a large grain of salt and decide for yourself

keep in mind we here look at our razors as these exalted instruments to be treated with the utmost of respect and kept in tip-top shape. For the masses in days gone by razors were common items looked at like a pencil often times abused and not properly maintained. You had to have more than one because there was a good chance eventually the poor care caught up with them.

Speaking of how the average guy might have treated a razor back then ..... Here is are a couple of ads Martin103 posted in another thread ..... two bucks and if you're not satisfied after awhile, send it back and Shumate will exchange it for another ....... Imagine a current straight razor mfg with that sort of policy. Or if your beard is 'extra wiry' for $3.00 you can get one 'specially ground for that purpose.'