Thread: Taking off the training wheels - shaving with a different straight razor.

I've been using a straight razor with varying degrees of success for nearly a month or so now and have stuck to using the same razor each time so far. It's an Edwin Jagger razor that I'm led to believe is a rebranded Dovo Best Quality with ebony scales 5/8 round point.

This week on eBay I bought from a seller called germanrazors, which seems to be the eBay name of Revisor based in Solingen. I Googled them and found some info on this forum that told me someone had bought the Revisor name and had started producing razors with that name a few years ago. However, germanrazors on Ebay are selling razors that are listed as New Old Stock and have varying brands of razor for sale. I bid and won a Halfmann 6/8 spike point razor and received delivery yesterday. I'm not entirely convinced that this is a genuine NOS Halfmann and think they could more euphemistically be called " reproductions ".

Anyway, after reading some of the testemonials on their site I notcied that some claim their razors truly do come shave ready, so throwing caution to the wind I decided I wouldn't send it off to be honed and would instead give it a good strop on canvas and leather and then attempt a shave.

I stuck to just going WTG and made one pass with the Halfmann and surprised myself by getting a fairly close and smooth shave. I gave myself a little stab with the spike near my ear, but other than that I am pretty impressed with the razor and myself. I made a second XTG pass with the Edwin Jagger and although I didn't get a BBS, I did get probably the best shave I've had so far while shaving with a straight razor. All in all I think I got a pretty good deal for £40 and I'll be keeping an eye on this razor to see how it retains it's edge.

Very nice razor. I have found a few NOS (New Old Stock) razors that were strop/shave ready. Not really uncommon, just rare.

Originally Posted by dannywonderful

I'm not entirely convinced that this is a genuine NOS Halfmann and think they could more euphemistically be called " reproductions ".

I'm wondering what it was in your vast experience with straight razors that makes you so cynical or are you just trying to show that you're not a rube.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

I'm wondering what it was in your vast experience with straight razors that makes you so cynical or are you just trying to show that you're not a rube.

Unkind my friend!

Richard

Originally Posted by Chimensch

I'm wondering what it was in your vast experience with straight razors that makes you so cynical or are you just trying to show that you're not a rube.

I looked at photos of vintage Halfmann razors and this didn't look like any of them, the blade I'm talking about, rather than the scales. It also appears to be too new even for New Old Stock, it feels brand new. Maybe I am cynical, but as I'm happy enough with the performance of the razor and the price I paid for it, I'm not making any complaints about what I have, I'm just saying I'm not entirely convinced it genuinely is NOS.

Edit: I've since done a little digging around and found this old post on B&B: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21995

It appears to shed more light on the subject without being completely definitive.