Thread: Already found myself looking for vintage ivory-scaled razors online.

I'm going to resist buying any more razors until I master my Dovo "Best Quality" and before I know more about these things.

How soon did you guys start buying up vintage razors?

They were all I used and still are the vast majority of my razors.

Too soon and too many. Condition is everything. It is hard to learn how to judge the market or value of a razor and it’s hard to learn how to judge the condition. Then there is the whole repair, restoration rabbit hole. I would suggest not doing what I did. Watch the market and try to learn what to look for before going crazy on eBay. There is a thread called eBay 101that was really active once upon a time. You may want to start there.

I think i waited about a month. Sorry, i was weak.

Started on vintage razors and still only have a couple of modern ones. Should have learned more about vintage razors first so RezDog's advice is spot on for a beginner. There are a lot of pitfalls to look out for when buying vintage razors.

Bob

First razor was a vintage from a flea market over 50 years ago. Don’t know why I picked it up. It was pretty sharp, but not shave ready as I know know what that is now.

I inherited a strop from my dad.

Next one came about 10 years later. A new one. It was shave ready.

Shaved with DEs and cartridge razors mostly for convenience, with a straight once in a while for about 25 years.

Came back to straight razors full time. Got a Thiers-Issard that was professionally honed and got hooked again. Bought some stones and learned to hone them decently well. Still learning from SRP and YOUTUBE.

All of my razors since have been vintage. Restoring, cleaning and honing is a fun hobby. I have repinned and rescaled a few of them using purchased replacement scales and hope to try making my own - motivated by the discussions here on SRP.

This is a fun hobby and there is a tremendous support group here. Unfortunately, they are also incredible enablers of the various acquisition disorders associated with the hobby.

My first vintage was a Torrey, that I found while renovating a old farmhands house. Had rust n pits, but took an edge.
Cleaned it up, honed and used it for nearly 30 years, till I decided I wanted to remove the pits and make it look new again....I destroyed it.! Sanded it so thin, it was like foil.

So I looked into the Web for a place that sells new ones, and found SRD was practically in my back yard. I then met with the owner, ( Don ) and told him of my demise.
He then directed me to this forum, telling me there was all the information I would need for finding and restoring, in there. I joined the forum, educated myself along with help from the members, and have amassed a rotation of over 160 restored vintage blades, in just a few years.

Its great fun, and I'm always looking forward to the next razor.

I'll pass this on some good info there:
beginners-tips-june-2015-

Enjoy!
~Richard

DEZEC, I understand how forums can cause more buying......I used to frequent Parallax Bill's Milsurp Forum plus the forum was at its height during the time C&R imports were at their height. You can guess where most of my spending money went. LOL

Joining a forum dedicated to 1967 to 1972 Chevy trucks has lead to many original parts I really don't need and nearly led to two 1967 Chevy panel trucks I had no place to store out of the elements while my own truck was still up in blocks and in pieces.

All my straights are vintage and Sheffield's are my choice as I live there and the local connection has me hooked !
There's a lot of rubbish out there at inflated prices. I quickly learned to hone my own razors as the numbers were far too many to send out to be honed. I restore them now to shave ready, most have still got signs of age on them, patina as you may say.
I enjoy bringing a poor condition razor back to life to do what it was made for. I have little interest in modern razors.
Enjoy your search for an Ivory scaled one, they do look good if you find a nice one