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The "Not Gillette" Vintage DE Thread

R

romsitsa

Little trip to unicorn land. Swing AB with sliding lock.
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Vibro-Shave Electric Razor on the Bay right now in your price range. Doesn't look scary at all...

Berkeley adjustable is another I'd like to have too.
 
Here's another beefy Italian. Another version of the Radar. A closed bar version as opposed to Romsitsa's open comb example. I believe that this is the same razor as the Casanova 930 except that the Casanova takes proprietary blades.

Radar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 2.JPGRadar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 3.JPGRadar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 5.JPGRadar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 6.JPGRadar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 7.JPGRadar C.A.V.A. Baenziger Safety Razor, Replated Nickel, Italy 8.JPG
 
And here's another beefy Italian. Usually this model is branded as a Benz in my experience. However, this one is branded as a Metropolis, including on the packaging. Which is a bit surprising to me since the razor branded as Metropolis is usually a different looking razor, with a "twisted" handle.

Benz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 1.JPGBenz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 3.JPGBenz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 4.JPGBenz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 7.JPGBenz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 8.JPGBenz Metropolis Safety Razor, Italy 10.JPG
 
Here's one more Italian razor, not particularly beefy but also not that slight. It's aluminum and pretty rare it seems. It's either called an Alma Cesia or perhaps just Cesia. You can find advertisements where it appears to be called Alma Cesia but it's not clear to me whether the Alma part possibly just refers to an Alma blade.

Rare Alma Cesia Razor, Italy1.JPGRare Alma Cesia Razor, Italy2.JPGRare Alma Cesia Razor, Italy3.JPGRare Alma Cesia Razor, Italy4.JPGRare Alma Cesia Razor, Italy5.JPG
 
The Star DE razor. Delightful.
 
You own that Gibbs?

Unfortunately, i don't. 😕 I took this photo on the web, i shoud've specified it in my previous message... :biggrin:

If i had had one, i would have sent it to you to allow you to test it... 🤓

Damn, those are quite rare and I saw one a few months ago on Ebay and it was sold for over $500.

Several months ago, i saw one as well in NOS condition with its original case for "only" 350 €... And an other one in excellent condition with its original case for 250 €. 🧐

But i do know that @Cha-wing!! is an absolute lover of this Gibbs #9 and he owns 2 copies of it, if i'm not mistaken.

A french dude named Filslade dropped by to his house and he tested it. They made a video. You can see it at 10:15 minutes & at 22:17 minutes Filslade took back the Gibbs #9 for the ATG pass and you can hear him saying :

"wow, it is very efficient indeed !" & several seconds after "damn, oh yeah, it is really impressive"

He said to Cha-wing!! that he is planning to steal it from him before leaving... :biggrin:

 
Unfortunately, i don't. 😕 I took this photo on the web, i shoud've specified it in my previous message... :biggrin:

If i had had one, i would have sent it to you to allow you to test it... 🤓



Several months ago, i saw one as well in NOS condition with its original case for "only" 350 €... And an other one in excellent condition with its original case for 250 €. 🧐

But i do know that @Cha-wing!! is an absolute lover of this Gibbs #9 and he owns 2 copies of it, if i'm not mistaken.

A french dude named Filslade dropped by to his house and he tested it. They made a video. You can see it at 10:15 minutes & at 22:17 minutes Filslade took back the Gibbs #9 for the ATG pass and you can hear him saying :

"wow, it is very efficient indeed !" & several seconds after "damn, oh yeah, it is really impressive"

He said to Cha-wing!! that he is planning to steal it from him before leaving... :biggrin:


The #9 doesn't show very often, but I've heard that the Gibbs 15/17 adjustable performs better. Not sure how true is that, but I no longer feel like I would pay more than $150 for a vintage razor. I still like them and I would grab something interesting on the spot, but my attention is not primarily on modern high end razors.
 
The #9 doesn't show very often, but I've heard that the Gibbs 15/17 adjustable performs better. Not sure how true is that,

@Cha-wing!! has tried them both and his verdict is clear and accurate : to him, the #9 is far superior to the #15/17 in terms of shaving results, quality built, etc...

But of course, opinions are subjective and can vary easily from individual to another.

And i agree with you for the price, all that speculation on vintage razors is really annoying.
 
R

romsitsa

The Metropolis models are identical to CAVA, both have a diamond pattern on the knob. Benz only had a vertically striped version (with the balck/white handle).
 
@Cha-wing!! has tried them both and his verdict is clear and accurate : to him, the #9 is far superior to the #15/17 in terms of shaving results, quality built, etc...

But of course, opinions are subjective and can vary easily from individual to another.

And i agree with you for the price, all that speculation on vintage razors is really annoying.

Those who started collecting them 10-15 + years ago had it much easy, but now the problem is that too many flippers have joined this hobby and what they do is buying those razors cheap from antique shops, flea markets, garage sales, estate sales etc. and then artificially increase the prices to the roof to make a nice profit and sadly, those people are becoming more and more each day.

I'm glad that I was able to find some of my collection cheaper than usual and I own the vast majority of the vintage razors I always wanted, but if I was a new collector and I had to start from a scratch, I would just buy the best and cheapest vintage razors and skip the pricy ones.

I have nothing against the flippers, because some of my friends are doing the same thing as well, but that doesn't mean that I like how things are and finding what I need without 10-20 or more people to bid on it isn't fun at all.

My advice is to focus on the specific vintage razors that you want and once you find them to spend your extra money on modern high end razors. That way your money are at least going to a person who has spend some time creating something new instead if basically do nothing and pump the price of something uncommon in order to twist your hands to buy it for what he thinks is fair. Flippers are like leeches and they eventually find their way in every hobby.
 
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