Thread: Those Charming Red Imps

There have been many threads about the Red Imp and yet no club to collect all the beauty and charm of these red gems.

So here is your opportunity to show off your Imp.

All imps are welcome Case, Morris, and Ludo. 132 or 133

Share your pictures and shave stories with the mischievous Imp.

Here are my devils: A Morris 133 and Case 132 + 133

Here's my imp.

Here is my Morris Red Imp 133 3 pin. I will never sell this razor.

very nice!!! puts mine to shame....lol

Got this one NOS, as a gift from a near stranger, he owned a gift shop and had this unsold stock in his place since the 60's.

5/8 Ludo Red Imp Roundpoint.

Its in my top 2 shavers.

My Case. Got it NOS, used only 2 times so far.

My first straight razor was a Case Red Imp 132 that I bought in 1960 as a high school senior to use as a scraper to make oboe reeds. After abusing the razor for fifty years, I had it reconditioned by Linn Abrams last December as I started exploring straight razor shaving. It is now a fine shaver. I then bought a Red Imp 133 from Restored Razors to keep the 132 company.

I now have a total of 24 razors including razors made by Case, Dovo, Heljestrand, Le Grelot, Thiers-Issard, Boker, Union Cutlery, Henckels, Westenholm, Wade and Butcher, Hart Steel, dubl duck, and Torrey. The only brand I searched for that eluded me was a Filarmonica. Fifty dollar bids on eBay doesn't go very far on a Filarmonica. I really enjoy using a variety of representative razors and am constantly amazed at how well the Red Imps hold their ground against my other razors. I think Red Imps are vastly underestimated razors. They may not be one of the most "prestigious" brands but they really get the job done. If I downsized to only five razors, one of the Red Imps would certainly be among the five.

My first straight razor shave was with the unrestored 132 and it was a disaster. I honed it on a Franz Swaty stone, but frankly, it was very dull and uneven from misuse. It would hardly cut a single whisker. As a novice, I didn't know about the "sharp spike" on the 132. All of a sudden, the water in my sink was turning pink. I had slashed a three-inch long vertical, surgical incision just in front of my left ear. After about fifteen minutes, the styptic pencil and paper towels got the bleeding under control. I resumed and proceeded to add a matching cut in front of my right ear. Another fifteen minutes at the blood bank!!! However, this did not discourage me in the least. It was my ignorance that caused the cuts. It was a pretty important lesson to learn if you are going to use a spike razor. Fortunately, the cuts left no lasting visible scars. After this experience, I sent the 132 to Linn and all ended happily.

For sixteen years, I lived fifty miles south of Buffalo (NY), twenty-five miles east of Olean (NY), and about twenty (?) miles north of Bradford (PA). This certainly led to my interest in W. R. Case and Union Cutlery razors. We drove by the Union Cutlery Factory in Olean as least once a week. I have the Case Red Imp 132 and 133, the 4/8 and 5/8 Union Cutlery "Spike" razors, and the 4/8 and 5/8 Union Cutlery "Spike" razors with green translucent scales; one of which has an attached "Gold Spike" on the scale. I really loved having the different sizes of these razors for experimentation during that first month and a half of straight razor shaving.

During our time in Western New York, my wife and I slowly built a collection of ten W. R. Case Cutlery Knives that have served us well in the kitchen over the years.

I am happy to learn that others love and respect Red Imps!

Here's my Red Imp, by Morris Mfg. Sorry about the finger over the lens.

This was actually the first straight razor that I can recall holding, my initial thought 2 years ago that it was a worthless scrap of metal because of the rust and cheap feel to it. Came home for Thanksgiving and my curiosity got the best of me and decided to check out the lone razor in the shed. Recently getting into straights this will be my first project and finding it makes the work even more worthwhile. I knew I wanted to leave Florida with a new razor, and it was free.

Need to add my Red Imp here... what GREAT shavers they are !!!!