Thread: My thoughts on Feather style shavettes vs traditional straights.. noobs perspective

Originally Posted by Phrank

I would chime in on this on one point.

I don't know if you could say I was lucky, but when I started out, you could buy pretty much any new straight you wanted. I bought several new Thiers-Issard and Dovo from the Classic Edge, they arrived shave ready and in pristine condition, they were brand new!

Now, this is my opinion only, if I had to start again, I wouldn't bother buying anything that's new production. I find the new production razors I have, "meh", at best compared to the vintage blades. If you factor in the cost of the new production blades, you could buy several beautiful vintage blades and have them restored for pretty much the cost of one nice new production Thiers Issard or high end Dovo. Let alone if you learn how to do some basic restores yourself, there's tons of info on how to do exactly that here at SRP.

Let alone the availability of custom razor makers whose quality, IMO, is far superior to anything production for about the same price.

I hate to say it, but all that pretty gold wash and fancy spines may look nice, but there simply is no comparison, again in my opinion, in the quality of the shave compared to a vintage W&B, Joseph Rogers, Wosty's, and the list goes on and on.

I have a vintage Thiers Issard #69 Frameback, that I purchased for $40.00 off E-Bay, simply sent it out to get honed, and it absolutely blows away the new production TI's in my opinion. Again, if you learn how to hone your own razors, there's money saved again, and there's lots of instruction on how to do exactly that here at SRP.

I've purchased some beautiful vintage blades off E-Bay, they looked dirty and rusty, sent them out, and ended up with a far superior blade, for less dollars, than anything you could buy new.

I picked this up on E-Bay the other day for $70.00, a gorgeous W&B 7/8 Wedge, they are all out there, some are more expensive than others, but the quality, IMO, is leaps and bounds above most production razors today:

Attachment 154725

Wow! Well said and beautiful razor! I am just starting to find this out as I add to my razors from ebay.

I agree. Two of my razors came off eBay and both are obvious NOS or never used and well stored. I'm no razor aficionado but there are plenty lesser known name solingen razors that can be had for sub $100 that need nothing more then a hone and strop job. I am sure most will shave you just as good or better then a new $400 Dovo or Boker blade.