Single Edge Razor Acquisition Thread.

[BelfastBlade]

I very much enjoyed you sharing all those great stories from your Father, @BelfastBlade!

I'm curious why you want to buy a modern SE razor, particularly after all of your Father's great stories about them from back in his time? You should be able to pick up a vintage GEM or Ever Ready 1912 from a local antique store or one of the (in)famous auction sites. Connaught Shaving in the UK sells GEM PTFE Stainless Steel blades at a good price, this is where I got my 100 pack from. They are great shavers and wonderful pieces of history!

Hello @Buttercup

I have some news! I took up your advice from a few months ago. I'd been on the lookout and I finally acquired a British made Ever Ready 1912 with the "chain" handle. Which I presume is likely the most likely one my Father talked about my Grandfather having used back in the 1950s.

I got it for what I think is a very fair price. It has had a full restoration. All taken apart, sterilized, chemical strip and full re-plate in shiny new plating. It seems that these razors don't have a huge following so they can be picked up for relatively reasonable prices. I think it only cost me around $40 restored. I'd suspect the restoration would cost at least that on it's own if I was to send one for it, which me being me I would have had to do.

I know you can buy them on eBay UK pretty cheap.. like £10-£15 for a clean one, but even if I bought one from eBay for say £10-£15.. I'd have to send it for a restoration and the restoration surely must cost $60-$70 before shipping both ways.

I think it had been for sale for a while likely due to these old SE razors not being quite as sought after as DE ones, so the price was dropped and then I used the Black Friday reduction code they were running so I got it for less again.

I'm looking very forward to trying it out. It will likely be the first time an Ever Ready has been used in my family in six or seven decades. Funny thing is I actually have my Grandfather's old shaving mug.. he died shortly before I was born but when I was a child the mug caught my eye when I saw it in my Aunt's house and my Aunt gave it to me.

I should still have it in the attic today. It is just like a creamy white (sort of like the colour of Old Spice bottle) porcelain shave mug with a varnished wooden top.. it also has an image of a Viking long ship on one side and on the other side there is a image of an Egyptian boat on the Nile. There is a little writing under the images to say plus the century.

I also ordered the GEM blades you recommended! Thanks for that too! So I should be all set with the historic shave pretty soon!

 

[Tanuki]

Great day for wild injectors:

F and an E.

Cleaned a little:

 

[AlphaFrank75]

Amazon is on its game. I ordered my Thorn at 4:15pm yesterday and had it in my hand 12:00 noon today. Do we really need this kind of delivery speed??? Not me, but I'll take it. Sometimes I get stuff the same day.

 

[Lockback]

Amazon is on its game. I ordered my Thorn at 4:15pm yesterday and had it in my hand 12:00 noon today. Do we really need this kind of delivery speed??? Not me, but I'll take it. Sometimes I get stuff the same day.
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Ordered my Thorn on Friday and didn't expect it until today but got it yesterday.
Shaved with it today.
Outstanding!

 

[Anty]

Atelier Durdan La Faux + AC razor in polished titanium. Also came with a DE Le Maurice head in 1.4mm gap.

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Beautiful

 

[Anchovie666]

Look what I found in the Mail today. I'll have to complete it with a fresh pack of Valet Blades from the Era but everything else looks pretty new. The instructions for attaching it to the wall are still on the back.

 

[Wombat ESQ]

Look what I found in the Mail today. I'll have to complete it with a fresh pack of Valet Blades from the Era but everything else looks pretty new. The instructions for attaching it to the wall are still on the back.

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Hmmmmm, you could send that to me, I'll install a cello sealed set/box of period correct blades for you at no cost
Not need to include return shipping [hint hint]

 

[Anchovie666]

Been waiting and looking a while for this one. Nice VC3 Set.
Bonus - some fresh Valet Blades

 

[Anchovie666]

And lastly a nice little EverReady 1924 Set. Which evidenced by the 1925 Christmas Seals Stamp that rode along with it for almost 100 years was given as a Christmas present to some lucky man.

 

[Wombat ESQ]

And lastly a nice little EverReady 1924 Set. Which evidenced by the 1925 Christmas Seals Stamp that rode along with it for almost 100 years was given as a Christmas present to some lucky man.

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Not a new purchase, but one worth chasing? maybe? ...... a 19?? christmas set with pristine wrapped playing cards [after per chasing this, before it arrived, I had the horrible thought, "I wonder if there is at least one card missing" there usually is?]

 

[Anchovie666]

Not a new purchase, but one worth chasing? maybe? ...... a 19?? christmas set with pristine wrapped playing cards [after per chasing this, before it arrived, I had the horrible thought, "I wonder if there is at least one card missing" there usually is?]

View attachment 1760176

Absolutely love that Case it's in.

 

[BelfastBlade]

And lastly a nice little EverReady 1924 Set. Which evidenced by the 1925 Christmas Seals Stamp that rode along with it for almost 100 years was given as a Christmas present to some lucky man.

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That's really lovely! To think it was given to someone on Christmas almost a century ago.. that person long since dead.. if the razor could only talk I'm sure it could tell some stories! I think about this with these old razors.. I have old straight razors probably from the 1800s and I wonder who used them all those years ago.. and how they would feel if they knew 100+ years later their razor would have made it's way to me.

I got a new razor today myself. A freshly re-plated British Made Ever Ready 1912. It arrived from America this afternoon! I'm very eager to give it a whirl.

I showed it to my Father and he said he thinks it is the same as his Father's one.. or if not the exact same, very similar! Bear in mind he is trying to remember something 70+ years ago from when he was a child.. so it's not easy. He says the head looks familiar and he remembers the same little thumb part at the rear for lifting it up to put the blade in. However he thought maybe the handle was a little different on his father's one.. he thinks it was maybe smooth (maybe like the one in the quoted post!), whereas mine is the chain style handle.

I wonder how many models were offered to the British market.. I know there's the "1912" and the Streamline for the simple reason as I've seen both of those with "Made in England" on them. I believe the UK got the "Shovelhead" also. Probably others too. Maybe I'll just collect them all.. like Pokemon!

I was also wondering about the little "venus fly trap" style mechanism for holding the blade on these razors.. It seems there's like a little piece of metal that provides the spring/pressure. I wondered does this spring ever wear out or lose its pressure after repeated use? And if so can it be replaced? I'd guess it would be quite difficult to do so and if the mechanism did weaken or fail the razor might sadly end up being useless?

At first look I was sort of sceptical about that design. I had been looking at some others too and I saw a Streamline and it seems to have pretty much the same kind of general overall design to the 1912 one.. of course the Streamline seems to be a bit more upmarket, made a bit heavier, built to higher standard, improved quality, arguably prettier to look at etc.. I'm sure it cost a bit more than the regular 1912 and what have you.. but due to the similar overall design and spring mechanism I was reluctant to invest much money on one until I learned more about it and if it does ever give any problems.

I'd imagine the spring mechanism must be trouble free for the most part.. as there are lots of these razors at 70+ years old and they're all still working perfectly well. But then again I don't know much about them.

Thanks all!

 

[Wombat ESQ]

I was also wondering about the little "venus fly trap" style mechanism for holding the blade on these razors.. It seems there's like a little piece of metal that provides the spring/pressure. I wondered does this spring ever wear out or lose its pressure after repeated use? And if so can it be replaced? I'd guess it would be quite difficult to do so and if the mechanism did weaken or fail the razor might sadly end up being useless?

Yes the spring? or spring like mechanism does go catty wompus, i have one out of aprox ten [bought in a job lot, so not per chased specifically for that razor] that is sadly catty wompus. I tried one day to re-tension it, but no luck, it is Kangaroo Edward,. or as you mildly put it, useless.
Anything is possible, but the great cost of replacing it is "frustration" I just filed it as spare parts, is not like there are not four million of them out there, fruit caking round to replace it is like fitting a seatbelt to a motorcycle. possible but why?

 

[Anchovie666]

Not the greatest looker but I'm hoping she'll shave well. I took a GEM PTFE Blade and some Black Gorilla Tape and created a wedge that fits. We shall see in the morning. Offered $30 on EBay and the seller bit right away. The case closes and locks. Not too bad for an amateur lather catcher sleuth. I'm thinking this is 1902ish? If anyone knows how to date these things please let me know what you think.

 

[Whiterook]

I'm thinking this is 1902ish? If anyone knows how to date these things please let me know what you think.

I'd say it's a 1902 HR-14A.

Nice find and a great price!

 

[Anchovie666]

I'd say it's a 1902 HR-14A.
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Nice find and a great price!

Thank you for the input!! I'm hoping it shaves with my modified blade. It does seen to have some blade stops so I brought the edge of the blade down to meet that. We shall see. Where is that book available and what is the title & author?

 

[Whiterook]

Thank you for the input!! I'm hoping it shaves with my modified blade. It does seen to have some blade stops so I brought the edge of the blade down to meet that. We shall see. Where is that book available and what is the title & author?

The book is A Safety Razor Compendium by Robert K. Waits. I found my copy on Amazon. I have a HR-14B model and I use the wedge adapter from Frugal Shave on Etsy and a unmodified gem blade in mine. This works well for me.

 

[Anchovie666]

The book is A Safety Razor Compendium by Robert K. Waits. I found my copy on Amazon. I have a HR-14B model and I use the wedge adapter from Frugal Shave on Etsy and a unmodified gem blade in mine. This works well for me.

Thank you again. The book is in my Wishlist for Amazon and I ordered a set of gunmetal adapters from Frugal Shave.

 

[jaro 101969]

Not the greatest looker but I'm hoping she'll shave well. I took a GEM PTFE Blade and some Black Gorilla Tape and created a wedge that fits. We shall see in the morning. Offered $30 on EBay and the seller bit right away. The case closes and locks. Not too bad for an amateur lather catcher sleuth. I'm thinking this is 1902ish? If anyone knows how to date these things please let me know what you think.

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Very Nice...
BTW , if you have a 3d printer or access to one , there are wedge blade adapters that you can print in a cople of minutes and you just "pop" your blade into the adapter and then it mimics a wedge blade and you don't have to use tape....

The adapter was made available by one of our esteemed members here !!

Blade adapter (short) by riverrun

Blade adapter for despined GEM blades for use in razors requiring wedge blades.

www.thingiverse.com

 

[Wombat ESQ]

Not the greatest looker but I'm hoping she'll shave well. I took a GEM PTFE Blade and some Black Gorilla Tape and created a wedge that fits. We shall see in the morning. Offered $30 on EBay and the seller bit right away. The case closes and locks. Not too bad for an amateur lather catcher sleuth. I'm thinking this is 1902ish? If anyone knows how to date these things please let me know what you think.

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A good bath, and shhhhhhhhttttt I didn't say try some boot polish on the case. Ps I hate those handles too light and thin for my liking and I don't even shave