I've bought a few that just didn't do it for me. But I think the one that takes the crown was an old beater with kind of cool "naked lady" scales on the bay. I could see it had quite a bit of honewear but somehow I missed the fact that the pivot end of the show side scale had about a quarter inch or more chipped off and had been filed down. It was visible in the photos, I just missed it. Not to mention that it had been honed *way* into the toe. I didn't pay much for it but it was still more than I should have. For a while I thought maybe I'd try making a silicone mold of the scales and making new ones from acrylic. But eventually I just listed it on the bay, with a very detailed description of the flaws, and set the buy it now price pretty low (less than I paid by quite a bit). Somebody bought it within 24 hours. I was just happy to be rid of it. I never even tried to put an edge on it. I did sand off the worst of the active rust before I mailed it out, although I noted than in the description as well.
Share your most dissapointing straight razor purchase
- Thread starter Polarbeard
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Normally I like cheese, but swiss cheese on this palmera edge was not what I was hoping for.
Like cheese? There's plenty more on that edge
Like cheese? There's plenty more on that edge
There was a similar thread here some time ago that did not specify which type of razor and this is what I wrote there:
Mastro Livi, without any doubt.
My six consistently place at the bottom of my 80 or so straight razor rotation (and I have successfully honed all of them to a keen and comfortable edge - minus these six).
I fell for the propaganda (in other words should have done my homework better) of a gentleman from the same town as Mastro Livi who sung Livi’s praises every day and created an extensive library of Mastro Livi videos. I was attracted by the videos that this gentleman in cooperation with Mastro Livi produced, and when I did a trip to Italy I even took a side-trip there.
Later Livi seemed to have had a falling out with this gentleman, just like he had with his then US importer, who also used to be full of praise for Livi razors, but Livi did not appear to be easy to get along with and did not take to criticism easily.
Within a few months, I ended up with a total of seven of them, but I quickly (unfortunately not quickly enough) realized that they didn’t shave so well.
I tried to hone them, as it is not uncommon that a new razor needs some extra work, and with one in particular I kept trying and trying as it just did not go into my head that some razors are beyond salvation.
I admit, I got increasingly frustrated and kept trying with the above one until I had pretty much ruined the thing, but at that stage I just didn’t care any longer. This thing was only good as a letter opener - and even for that it was a little bit to large.
Of course, the smart thing would have been to wrap it up and send it back to Livi to be either fixed or demand a refund.
Having tried that once, Italian Customs demanded that I pay an exorbitant import duty and VAT on a razor that was after all made in Italy. So I did not repeat that exercise again…
What I did instead was to send the Livis to a well-known German razor maker (please don’t ask me his name, but his razors are well-known and known to be good value for money) whom I got to know quite well, and asked him whether he could take a look.
He did, tried his best so that I could get at least a 1/2-decent shave from them (still the on bottom rungs of my rotation ladder though) and his assessment was devastating: sloppily made, poor heat treatment, uneven edge…
Well they were unique pieces alright.
Should have saved my money and instead of hand-made should have gone for well-made.
In all fairness, I believe there was a time when Livi did great razors, otherwise he would never have gained the high reputation that he once had and my bad luck was that I bought my razors at a time when his creations were no longer what they (maybe) used to be.
Lesson learnt and since then I take anything “artisan” (e.g. shaving soaps) with a grain of salt.
B.
Mastro Livi, without any doubt.
My six consistently place at the bottom of my 80 or so straight razor rotation (and I have successfully honed all of them to a keen and comfortable edge - minus these six).
I fell for the propaganda (in other words should have done my homework better) of a gentleman from the same town as Mastro Livi who sung Livi’s praises every day and created an extensive library of Mastro Livi videos. I was attracted by the videos that this gentleman in cooperation with Mastro Livi produced, and when I did a trip to Italy I even took a side-trip there.
Later Livi seemed to have had a falling out with this gentleman, just like he had with his then US importer, who also used to be full of praise for Livi razors, but Livi did not appear to be easy to get along with and did not take to criticism easily.
Within a few months, I ended up with a total of seven of them, but I quickly (unfortunately not quickly enough) realized that they didn’t shave so well.
I tried to hone them, as it is not uncommon that a new razor needs some extra work, and with one in particular I kept trying and trying as it just did not go into my head that some razors are beyond salvation.
I admit, I got increasingly frustrated and kept trying with the above one until I had pretty much ruined the thing, but at that stage I just didn’t care any longer. This thing was only good as a letter opener - and even for that it was a little bit to large.
Of course, the smart thing would have been to wrap it up and send it back to Livi to be either fixed or demand a refund.
Having tried that once, Italian Customs demanded that I pay an exorbitant import duty and VAT on a razor that was after all made in Italy. So I did not repeat that exercise again…
What I did instead was to send the Livis to a well-known German razor maker (please don’t ask me his name, but his razors are well-known and known to be good value for money) whom I got to know quite well, and asked him whether he could take a look.
He did, tried his best so that I could get at least a 1/2-decent shave from them (still the on bottom rungs of my rotation ladder though) and his assessment was devastating: sloppily made, poor heat treatment, uneven edge…
Well they were unique pieces alright.
Should have saved my money and instead of hand-made should have gone for well-made.
In all fairness, I believe there was a time when Livi did great razors, otherwise he would never have gained the high reputation that he once had and my bad luck was that I bought my razors at a time when his creations were no longer what they (maybe) used to be.
Lesson learnt and since then I take anything “artisan” (e.g. shaving soaps) with a grain of salt.
B.
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