Thread: My 10 or so razors

I've been away working for the last 10 days.
Another razor has arrived. I am a bit disappointed. It has some black stains over the gold leaf (is that gold leaf?) On the blade, corosion around the pivot, and the toe touches the scale wedge. I guess it was rescaled but not correctly sized. ... The pictures on ebay looked better... at least it was inexpensive

Originally Posted by Eurofighter

I've been away working for the last 10 days.
Another razor has arrived. I am a bit disappointed. It has some black stains over the gold leaf (is that gold leaf?) On the blade, corosion around the pivot, and the toe touches the scale wedge. I guess it was rescaled but not correctly sized. ... The pictures on ebay looked better... at least it was inexpensive

Looks like faded goldwash.

Celluloid can shrink over time. Weird huh?
Some blades have been broken by scales that shrunk too much over time.

Now that you mention it, I remember reading about shrinking scales here on the forum.
The razor was advertised as shave ready. It doesn't even shave my arm hair.
I do like the shoulderless design.

Originally Posted by Eurofighter

Now that you mention it, I remember reading about shrinking scales here on the forum.
The razor was advertised as shave ready. It doesn't even shave my arm hair.
I do like the shoulderless design.

Unless the seller claims to have honed the razor themself (or had it done professionally) I usually take it to mean "razor is pretty sharp". Either way, I'm skeptical unless it is a member here I trust. I'm usually very conservative in describing razors I've honed myself. I had a razor that shaved well, but when a mentor evaluated my work he said the heel needed work.

Examples of descriptions I've seen
"Pristine" - razor had very noticeable amount of black rust
"Never been honed" - ton of hone wear on spine
"BNIB" - used razor with busted handle and wrong box
"No damage" - huge chip in edge

Yea, you got to look at the pictures, then roll the dice. Load the pic on to a photo editing program, enlarge the photos and look for defects. If the photos are crap, pass. You can tell from the picture, there is no edge on that razor.

Scales probably shrunk, The good news is, most of that will clean up, you may have some pitting and you will lose the gold wash, but it is a nice blade grind and probably will be a fine shaver

You might be able to make those scales work, by taking a thin file that will fin between the scales, line the inside of the scales with tape, electric or duct and file the wedge back with the edge of the file, be careful not to hit the pin.

The seller's own words:
"I start with sandpaper 1000 to catch the thread, I go to the different grit stones the last is a purple hill 8 000-10000 and I finish the leather until the razor is able to cut a hair without difficulty. I check my shavers before each shipment and make leather passes to ensure he is ready to shave. the purple stone is part of a trio c is the finest grain (trio Welsh)."

I should be more skeptical when evaluating ebay razors. I made a few mistakes, but that's how one learns I guess.
I like that gold wash and I will keep it despite the pitting.
Great idea with filing the wedge!

what do you think about this razor? I know I said I'll stop buying