Thread: Is this spine wear?

This is supposed to be a NOS razor. It looks quite nice, except for the spine that looks worn at the toe. What do you think?

Looks like it to me. What is the other side like? Also check bevel with a loupe.

It could be hone wear, but that is usually accompanied by similar changes on the bevel (wider bevel and the bevel closer to the spine aka reduced blade width) which I'm not seeing. It could also be from uneven grinding. It could also be from restoration work - properly done to correct/hide issues or incorrectly done and therefore causing issues.

I'm assuming this is an auction you're thinking of bidding on, and thus don't want to share full info, but it's hard to tell from the single poor photo.

looks like it, to me. Of course it could also be factory grinding. What brand/model?

I've failed to mention that I don't own the razor. It is up for sale and I am considering bidding for it. The opposite side looks similar, but not as bad. The bevel does look clean and if anything, the toe looks wider than the heel. Not sure if I can get a beeter picture using my laptop - I might give it a try. The razor is advertised as new old stock and the seller doesn't accept returns.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

What brand/model?

It is a Carl Herder

Originally Posted by Eurofighter

I've failed to mention that I don't own the razor. It is up for sale and I am considering bidding for it. The opposite side looks similar, but not as bad. The bevel does look clean and if anything, the toe looks wider than the heel. Not sure if I can get a beeter picture using my laptop - I might give it a try. The razor is advertised as new old stock and the seller doesn't accept returns.

Take a good look at the seller. If all of his items for sale are razors, and his rating is 100% or nearly so, might be okay. If it is just a picker, you are throwing the dice. Most of the "good" ebay sellers are known on one or more of the popular straight razor forums. So verify, especially if a seller represents a razor to be shave ready.

It might be a perfectly good razor, as a shaver. It is no prize winner, as a collector piece. Keep that in mind as you set your bid. Bid what you are willing to pay for it, not what you think it will take to "win". There will be others, trust me on that. My own personal rule of thumb is if I get more than 10% of my ebay auctions, I am bidding too high. YMMV.

It looks enough like it for me to question the NOS description.

I'd probably decide on a low max bid and watch it for a while. If a lot of bidders started showing up and I still wanted it, I'd throw that low bid at it and not look again until the auction was over. Sometimes you get lucky

that sure looks like hone wear to me, but I'm not an expert. To me NOS means never used, just old.

Yup, massive hone wear, caused by honing on the stabilizer.

The heel needed to be corrected and moved forward of the stabilizer. The honer was aware that the heel was not making full contact and applied more pressure, probably on a low grit stone, over a long period of time.

The stabilizer continued to keep the heel off the stone but needlessly ground the razor, toe half of the razor which was making full contact took the brunt of the damage.

This razor was much wider at one time and probably the width at the heel was the same as the toe. Hard to say how much width has been lost, but probably considerable.

Notice the hone wear over the stabilizer (red arrow) and even on the tang (blue arrow). It is tough to wear down a tang.

You would probably need to hone the razor with 3 pieces of tape to try to make up for lost steel, after the heel has been corrected.

If you are considering a purchase of this razor, pass there are much better razors available.

Sadly, the damage was all needless, the heel could have been reprofiled in a matter of minutes and none of wear would have occurred, with a 2-minute correction and taped spine.

That is not NOS, I would find another vendor…