Some stuff found in the wild and a new hone

I mentioned these briefly in other threads, but I figured it would be most appropriate to post it all here. My antique store acquisitions started innocently enough....

First, I'll start with story time. I'm sure some of you will enjoy this. I was driving home from my hair cut Saturday afternoon and for no reason decided to take a different route home, kinda glad I did. As I was driving I saw a sign that said "ANTIQUES ->". And I thought to myself "I better check this out." Ran home, showered off the loose hair and googled the area. Apparently the "Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association" were having a bi-annual show in an expo center a few miles from my place. They promised fair pricing, with some pretty convincing "guarantees." So, I ran over there, with just a couple hours left until they closed. I was pretty disappointed, small show with less stuff in it than the bigger antique stores in the area. If I wanted a slick pocket watch (a few Elgins and the like), an old musket that would probably blow my arm off or a throne to sit in while I watched TV, it was the place to be. Now I was "razor-hungry" and it would only be quenched with some old steel in my greasy little mitts. OFF TO GOOGLE. I know that I still haven't scratched the surface of the stores in the Metro-Milwaukee area, so there had to be someone who had something worth owning.

I hopped on the interstate and went to the city, hit a store in a hipster district. "Hipsters love old things, there has to be something." Nope. Next on the list. Started walking around the second store, felt like I could get a Mr. T outfit in a flash. Then I saw the first case with razors, then the second and third. All told, 5 cases with 2-3 razor and one with about a dozen razors in it. Unfortunately, this place is housed in an old factory and by the time I found where all the razors were, they were closing. Took pictures of the case numbers and figured I would hit them up before the Super Bowl Chili Dump at a friends house on Sunday.

Sunday arrive and I wake up early like it's friggen Christmas. But first, I need to be in the proper razor handling mindset. So, I shaved. I mucked it up, just recently went from a big beard (for two years) to a goatee (or mustache and goatee? I've heard both so often I dunno what it's called anymore) Threw on some alum and balm and out the door. Checked all the razors. This place should change it's name to "Hone-Wear USA." The most notable was a W&B that started life most likely as a 8/8, down to about 3 or 4/8. I was incredibly sad. Until I found a nice, mint looking Swaty. Just lost an Ebay bid on a W.R. Case & Sons razor(67) and a separate auction on a W.R. barber's hone(38), so I was pretty stoked to scoop that up for $24. Anyway here's my haul.....

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New vermio hone, will describe in detail under hones thread
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Lynn carried Swaty's?! heh
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Says "Eight Brothers" Tobacco, maybe a novelty or anniversary gift?
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Classic Gillette, love the knurled grips. Heard so much about people using DE's that I realized it would be pretty good for future travels.

Some wild stuff you've got there. Nice haul.

Nice score!

1940s Gillette superspeed. Mild razor. Just make sure the doors open at an even and constant rate and you are all good.

Thanks for the info!

The doors open great, didn't even think about that, but I checked. There's just one hitch. This thing looked clean as a whistle. The pictures are before any sanitizing or anything. I started wiping it off. And some black gunk came off....Weird. I did it again and again. And again. I buffed this thing for a while. Cover a whole (old) dishrag with what I imagine a whole bottle of polish. Or this thing is magical in some demented and dirty way....

I would just clean it with some scrubbing bubbles or dishwashing liquid now. That is probably just polish residue doing that as the nickel plating is soft

That's what I was thinking, with the polish, but I figured more buffing can't kill it. Going to give it some dawn sometime this week. It was just amazing at how much was in there, it looked clean as a whistle.

Ya buffing can kill the finish , there's not much nickel on top of the brass, if you get done to that , it might need plating to look right again. Tc

Yea, soak in dish soap and hot water over night, even a couple days won’t hurt, scrub with a soft tooth brush (dollar store) scrub the knurling.

I like, Flitz to polish with a paper towel, scrub in with tooth brush, (Simple Green will clean brush when done) wipe with paper towel and buff with a micro fiber. The micro fiber will make it gleam. May take a couple polishing cycles.

Soak your micro fiber towels in a bucket of Simple Green and water overnight then toss in the washing machine with your bath towels, they will come out like new.


Mass and Mothers are too aggressive for old Gillette nickel, and don’t go near a buffer, you will burn right through it.

Nice stones, nice haul…

You must be the master of timing, was thinking about getting some polish this week and looking at flitz or maas. Though the gillette is pretty polished, probably clean it and leave it. Now for a re-up on some simple green and microfiber

Nice score my friend. Overtime I hit the antique or resale shops near here, they never have anything & when they do, they are junk. Good luck on future ventures.

Yea all of this was sifting through probably 20-30 razors and even more safety's. Some weeeiiird stuff in the store and some pretty exorbitant pricing for anything W&B, Boker and other more popular names. Finding a gem in the dirt is pretty difficult for me so far. There was a schumate "unused" but they wanted $75 for it, pushing it out of my budget... They also usually flat out refuse any haggling so far or have a set percentage based on item cost.

Thats how its getting to be hear as well, since I done grabbed all the "good" cheap stuff. Came across a red injun with chips along the whole edge, and a busted scale. Figured I'd get it cheap....hahaha!!!
The guy wanted $238.00 for it. [emoji13]
This guy must sell on ebay, I said to myself [emoji38]

I hear crack is getting expensive, must be why he wanted so much. How he came up with that number would be interesting....