Thread: Crappy e-bay Razor Question

First of all please dont flog me for this question....
I have several "vintage" ebay razors that aren’t anything special, but they shave. Lately, I've been noticing all the super cheapy razors on e-bay that have been specifically noted as razors to stay away from AND of those cheapy razors I’ve actually seen a few where the scales don’t look too horrible.

So I have a question that is purely theoretical and as a total newb I’m not sure of the answer. IF I bought a cheapo with scales that I like (around $15) which also happened to have a similar blade size to my old razors, is there any reason I wouldn’t be able to mount the scales to one of my vintage razors?

Just throwing the idea out there.
Thanks

You're not the first to raise this question. You're certainly not in peril of being flagged.
I've never taken apart a crappy Paki razor and I wonder if they use 1/16 pins or something larger.
Kriegars have some interesting scales. I looked at some of them on eBay and some of the scales don't show pinning but some of them do look pretty standard. It might work for you. If you do go ahead with it, please post the results.

Re-using the scales of the nasty ebay types is probably the most useful they can be however I wonder if you may be able to find "good" scales cheaper elsewhere. A UK supplier has them Razor Scales & Pin kits but I'm sure there will be others.

Give it a shot. I imagine as long as the size of the blade will fit nicely in the scales it shouldn't be a problem.

Originally Posted by Jeltz

Re-using the scales of the nasty ebay types is probably the most useful they can be ....

HAHAHA I guess That makes me "Green" right. Im taking garbage and recycling!

Thanks for the input guys!

Hey crom,

I've tried the same thing. If it is from china, it won't work. THey use a much larger pin, and I found I couldn't re-use the scales at all.

For the pakistani crud, the scales seemed to fit the normal pinning pattern and I was able to reuse a couple.

China, bad, paki, good, india, don't know..

There ya go mate!!

Originally Posted by mjhammer

Hey crom,

I've tried the same thing. If it is from china, it won't work. THey use a much larger pin, and I found I couldn't re-use the scales at all.

For the pakistani crud, the scales seemed to fit the normal pinning pattern and I was able to reuse a couple.

China, bad, paki, good, india, don't know..

There ya go mate!!

Now thats great info! I'll shoot for Paki in order to put all the pieces together of my stupid puzzle.

I have had and taken apart some of those cheapies. I find the scales to be pretty hit or miss with regards to fit and finish. I would suggest either contacting someone who offers scalemaking services or go with some off the shelf scales rather than gambling on cheapos. Or if you have the time and inclination, you can make your own scales.

Great point, I didn't really address the real point, which is what is more expensive.

I had a couple of cheap crud china junk, and I wasted money on a couple cheap junk paki's, so I had them laying around, and the blades had to come off, just out of spite. I had diss'd all three I had, and the only scales that worked were the paki's. They were not what I would call good.

I certainly wouldn't go buy a cheapo just for the scales, when thesuperiorshave.com has great german scales for 13$. I'd rather support that type of vendor than one that would sell the cheap foriegn razors.

I should have said so in my previous post, but I single mindedly addressed the question of which cheapo scales were re-usable. The scales from the cheapo's were just as cheap as the blade for the acrylics. I had a couple of wooden handled china blades that weren't even close to being re-usable. I have no razor with those cheapo scales on them.

now, there ya go mate!! hehe....

Mike

There might be a lot more point in buying old, quality razors which are offered on eBay with irremediable pitting or chunks of blade missing. I've actually seen one on offer, with no other indication than "condition as shown in pictures", with a missing triangle running to over a third of the width. It would be an act of mercy to use one of those for an authentic restoration. But I would sooner buy from someone who explains it more frankly.