Thread: Newbie with some old razors

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie but my little brother got me into straight razors, I guess it goes hand in hand with my liking to old muscle cars.
My brother gave me the L.Lowe/"Invincible" as a starter with a strop. My wife got me a Wade & Butcher Sheffield from an antique shop a ways away. Yesterday my family and I went to another antique shop & I picked up a "Silver Beauty"/"American Beauty". The lady said the box was original and it has "English Steel" embossed on it. I know very little about my razors. Lynn said my Invincible is pre-WWII and the Butcher seems to be a more popular, but it needs the most work. I really like all of them but the American Beauty is the coolest and in the best condition. I learned how to shave on the Invincible. It was a very patient and bloody process at first.lol I'm going to get them all restored. Thanks to this forum, I learned what NOT to purchase whenever I'm interested in a razor & I'm grateful for the knowledge in SRP

Great start to a collection. That W&B is definately worth a restore! Looks huge, even bigger than my 15/16.

thanks Cat! the w&b is DEFINITELY a tank of a razor! it's quite heavy and I've yet to try it out but I'm really looking forward to having them all restored & posting before and after pics!

Hi there, nice razors.
American beauty is a beauty.

Originally Posted by 100fuegos

Hi there, nice razors.
American beauty is a beauty.

thanks 100! Last night I was working on the american beauty and caught a pretty good cut!lol I don't want to take the patina off, but I did manage to get some Never Dull (Marine Corps' metal clean all!) and shine her up a bit. I took a dremel tool with a soft buffing pad to her with some fine/450/super fine sand paper for a wet sand as well. I'll post some pics of my progress as I go. I did notice that I took some of the gold off the american beauty lettering but i didn't totally strip the words off the blade. All she'll need now is a good honing and I'm pretty stoked!

WOW Your wife did great. That is a beasty W&B. Congrats

Whatever your wife got that W&B for, it was an excellent deal! I've had my eye out for one just like it for quite some time, have fun restoring that bad mofo.

Originally Posted by nicknbleeding

WOW Your wife did great. That is a beasty W&B. Congrats

thanks nick! it truly is a beast! it weighs as much as both the other razors, the design reminds me of an old meat cleaver!lol

Originally Posted by CDogg

Whatever your wife got that W&B for, it was an excellent deal! I've had my eye out for one just like it for quite some time, have fun restoring that bad mofo.

thanks CDogg! I didn't know if $48.00 was too much but I know a lot of our forum members have 'em so I figured it'd be worth buying. I'm just trying to figure out why they're so popular....