Thread: Prima otto Marx razor ID

Hi all. I'm new to straight razor shaving and have recently learned my brother in law is sitting on about 10 old razors. I will be obtaining all for identification purposes, but this is first up.

The lettering says Otto Marx Chicago. Made in Germany. Prima is also printed on one side of the blade.

I currently have a 5/8 razor and it appears to be slightly larger. Maybe a 6/8?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. If its worth it based on existing blade wear I would love to see if it's worth getting restored! Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know if it's jst the pictures, but it looks like it has been over heated and lost it's tempur at the toe end.

Great eye! While i wasn't sure what happenned at the tip, my untrained eye could see it is slightly discolored from brown to blue in these areas. To me it looks like it had been honed and turned up at te end of the stroke messing up the tip a bit?

Does that render the blade useless? Not worth restoration?

The only way to tell is to hone it. Odds are that it won't hone, at least in the discolored area if not the whole blade.

Dang, one down a few to go. Thanks for the replies!!

Seeing as I can't hone, I will have to see what glen thinks. If I should send to him or not

Simply put, power tools for "sharpening" aren't very good for razors. May be able to make a round point out of it, depends on the steel's condition...

Has anyone heard of this razor mfg or know a resource to look it up? I tried google to no avail.

I looked thru my Goin's Encyclopedia & had no luck. There were quite a few importers of German blades that had their name stamped on them. Pretty much all of the vintage blades are good shavers, albeit some better than others as long as they haven't had some sort of damage to them from someone trying to "restore" them & not knowing what they are doing.

My brother in law just dropped off his straights. Many seem to be in poor condition. But I did see some Sheffield blades. A wade n butcher. And an interesting Japanese? Marked blade. I will have to get better pics but it's potentially a start

While I may not have them in my hand, they look perfectly serviceable...