Thread: The start of a Working Collection

Hey everyone, I have been shaving with a Dovo Shavette now for about 9 months and have decided to move to a real straight, but I did not want to pay 100+ bucks for a new one. The past couple of weeks I have now acquired 3 straights. The most recent one is made by Chas. Schaaf and is called "Blue Steel" I bought it at a gun show for $10 bucks, I would be curious to know if this one is worth anything, most likely not though? There is some minor chipping on one of the scales but other than that it looks like it is in good condition.



The next is a basic Genco the I bought at an antique store for $15


And lastly I have a razor that my grandfather gave me and this was his fathers razor. The scales I believe are horn and have some sort of bug damage. It is made by George Wostenholm & Son's from Sheffield and on the blade itself it calls itself the "Celebrated Concave Razor." I am hoping to completely restore this razor and make new scales for it, most likely out of ebony or birds eye maple. Does anyone have any info on some good honing and restoration services? I would love to eventually use these as everyday shavers. I know the first two should be honed before I use them and the old razor needs some TLC before it touches my face.

Also, I do not know why my pictures are upside down

First, welcome to SRP!

Regarding you question of value, appraisals are not done nor allowed on SRP, the main reason for this is that value can be very individual, to you a razor might be worth $10, while another guy would be willing to give $200 for the same razor.

With that said it looks like you're into a good start, I specially like the Wostenholm

For restauration there are several members offering their services in the Member service section of the Classifieds.

Thank you :-)

All three look like they just need to be honed up and used.

With the Schaaf and the Genco, that is the plan. The Sheffield needs some serious restoration work, honing, and new scales. After that, it will be used.

Looks like a great start, hard to tell from the pics, but they don't look like they have too much hone wear at all. they should clean up really well indeed. One thing i've come to realise about razors is that the money in them is in scale materials gold wash and appointments in general. A blade is a blade and if they're french, german, american or british the steel is likely to be good, thats not accounting for ease of honing, smoothness of shave with a given countries choice of steel etc, but the blade is the important part, and they all look like good blades. I've got razors that cost me £10 plus time to clean up and hone and i've got £200+ razors and some are better than others, i prefer some to others, but none of that correlates with price

Nice work! I could recommend starting out with the Genco as it has a straight edge and will be easy to hone and strop into a fine shaver. The top razor has a smile, which is good. You should hit the wiki and learn how to hone and strop it. Just some rolling strokes and you will love it! That Sheffield will look great someday! Wostenholms are well worth a lot of patient labor. I also could advise to clean it up and oil it so as to wait and be sure you want to mess with a great-grandfather's razor. It is only original once!

Love that frameback!

Nice razors!

Grand dad's Wostenholm is a treasure.

BTW, the bugs that do that are called dermestid beetles. The larva are hungry lil bastidges.
Dermestidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I honed one of those Wostenholms last week, great shaver and very nice even grind.
All 3 razors will serve you well.