Thread: Is old better than new

There is IMHO no such thing as old being better than new.

There are, on the other hand a lot of different types of skin, and a lot of different type of hairs.
And also, there are a lot of different levels of manufacture quality.

What is good for you might be bad for another, and the opposite can also be true.
I never ever use a Thiers Issard razor, the feeling of shaving with ones feels like "cardboard", I just hate it.
At the same time, I've prepared TI razors that have become immediately loved by their new owners.

While I am an oldies lover myself, I have a good friend who is a remarkable specialist on steels and love hard steels for his razors, with, if possible a paper thin edge. While both think that the other has remarkable razors, we have a few times traded blades and stuck to our initial preferences.

And as I was saying, quality matters. A bottom shelf razor compared to a top shelf, whatever the epoch, can't be compared.

To take an extreme example, compare a circa 1820 butterfly razor to a circa 1820 Pradier, both from French makers, and you have compared apples and oranges.
Most of the time though, it's not that extreme lol.

What can play in favor of the oldies, is that the very nice ones were kept safe while the shittier ones ended as tools (one I was given was used to castrate pigs), and nice models can be obtained for a bargain

I have only 2 razors that are less than 15 years old: a Thiers-Issard le Dandy 6/8 and a Boker King Cutter. My other 30+ razors range in age from 30 to 100+ years of age. My experience is that my vintage razors shave as well or better than my newer razors.

The big thing is that they cost a lot less than new razors and seem to be of much more consistent quality.

If you are willing to learn how to restore a rusty, highly patinated blade and repair or replace and repeen scales, you can get yourself several mighty fine razors for the price of a single new blade.

You have to be willing to settle for a blade might have a few blemishes and scales that have a nick or a bug bite, but shaves as well or better than a new one.

I’m not a collector, but I do enjoy the restorations I am able to do and I really enjoy shaving with the razors I am able to bring into my rotation. I don’t buy it if I don’t intend to use it.

You have two very different razors; The Sheffield razor has been honed on the stabilizer with pressure. the cause of the wonky edge that appears to have a frown and the ground spine & smiling toe. A 5-minute heel and edge correction will fix that and allow the full edge to be easily honed.

If you hone the shoulder less Bismarck with the same pressure that the Sheffield was, (“They have been honed on the same stones and the same way.Yet the Sheffield shaves much better and more smother than the Dovo !”), you will flex the blade and lift the edge off the hone. It does not take much to flex a hollow ground, shoulder less blade edge off the hone.

It may be why the Sheffield shaves better, at least the toe was fully on the hone. I suspect the toe shave better than the heel.

Look at the bevels and edges with magnification, ink both the razors to see where they are making contact on the hone. Correct the heel and the edge to remove the frown and fully hone the edge.

There are many posts on heel correction. It is not the razors, old vs new, it is how they were honed. As you gain more experience, they should shave the same, you just must learn how to hone each individually.

I have photoshopped the heel and the toe . Is this the correct way to fix the problem with the smile

No, more like the photo, in a graceful radius. This will move the corner of the edge about a ¼ inch from the stabilizer and make honing much easier.

Ink on the bevel will quickly tell you if you are making full contact on the edge.

Use a large coin or washer to draw the radius with a sharpie, blacken the part to be removed then you can preview what it will look like and find a pleasing profile. WD 40 will remove the ink if you want to start over.

Also, put an extra layer of tape on the Bismarck, ink the bevel and do 4- 6 light laps on your finish stone. No more than that and look at the edge with magnification. Use Light laps.

You are probably very close having a good edge, a micro bevel will probably finish it nicely.

For your benefit you can also ink the bevel and use a bit of pressure and do one lap. This will show you, how little pressure it takes to lift the edge off the stone, you will be honing on the back of the bevel, not the edge.

Ink is your friend, you can learn a lot from an inked bevel and some magnification.

Originally Posted by Smell

I have photoshopped the heel and the toe . Is this the correct way to fix the problem with the smile

What you have shown is my preferred method of removing a stabilizer. I've done several that way.

I do like this idea too. But I think if I was going to go at it like this I'd round off that heal just a touch to keep from drawing blood! Plus the fact that the edge is not a smooth sweeping curve. A little work on that edge could make a smoother curve.

Originally Posted by Aggelos

one I was given was used to castrate pigs

Wild thinking, but there's probably more than one of us shaving with a razor that castrated something!

Originally Posted by Smell

I have photoshopped the heel and the toe . Is this the correct way to fix the problem with the smile

Looks like the way Thiers Issard make some of their razors. Works for them should work for you.

https://www.thiers-issard.fr/en/stra...taillelame-5_8

Bob