'Busy' in that I have picked up a large quantity of shaving goods to try. The following is sort of a buying recap of my recent getaway. Having just returned from a brief vacation with my wife to the California gold country, I was able to visit a few antique stores and shops. I came away with much more shaving gear than anticipated! Before I hit the antique stores, my wife & I ventured into a few other shops—one local business made their own natural soaps and lotions. I picked up a puck of “Cold Brew” Shaving soap; made from “olive oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, palm oil, castor oil, beer, shea butter, irish moss, kaolin clay, essential oils of camphor, clove, eucalyptus and cinnamon.” The very first antique store we went into in the little gold-country town of Grass Valley, I hit a ‘mother lode’ of shaving stuff. The owners had several display cases of shaving related items that I mostly had to resist—not easy, as there was some really cool vintage stuff (much of it waaaay overpriced, IMO) such as old Barber's Barbicide jars and strops. Many old shave brushes too. If I were a brush-restorer, I'd have come away with quite an assortment. Here is a dandy little blade ‘Treasure Chest’ bank from EverReady, “The Blades You Treasure.” The lid comes off to empty the bank when full. I came across literally dozens of Gems & other SE razors, many in good condition. Most were about $8-14 in price. Very tempted to grab some, but I opted to pass. I did find a few decent DE razors, some incases. I grabbed this gold Gillette Tech as I am fond of my ‘plain’ Fat Handled Tech at home. It also came with the gold blade holder, although I don’t believe it was part of the original set. Several packs of the Gillette razors included. There were plenty of empty straight razor cases available there, so I grabbed a few. I needed one of these for my Wadsworth XLNT razor I recently restored, and I actually found one for that razor. Panning for Straights: The owner had several dozen vintage straight razors. He claimed there seems to be a more recent rush on these things. Many in the case were in pretty sad shape—the kind of chipped blade, near useless razors one finds daily on ebay. But in this collection, I was able to filter out some nice straights. All of these razors depicted need a good, thorough cleaning. I did a simple wipe-down before shooting them with the camera. I loved the look of bolsters, and the blade & scales of this Griffon were in nice shape. I was not familiar with the maker on this one, but I did lke the pearled tang! Any info anyone has on this razor to share would be appreciated. Jolly Rodgers: This smiling Rodgers & Sons (with quite a point!) was in very nice shape, and HEAVY! The scales are chipped and I'll probably replace them. Another hefty 7/8 blade on this Rodgers, with horn scales. It looks and feels to be in pretty good shape. A Mulcuto Diamon; scales & blade are decent, tip is missing a bit where it seems to be hitting the wedge. So after this Birthday Buying Extavaganza, I figured I’d seen enough ‘shaving stuff.’ We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and eating… Next day, after breakfast as we were preparing to pack up and head home, I persuaded my wife to allow me one last peek in a small antique store we overlooked the previous day. Entering the small store, two women behind the counter greeted me as I made a leisurely lap around the store. I saw nothing remotely shaving related nor interesting. As I headed for the door, one women said, “Excuse me, sir?...you wouldn’t happen to know anything about… ‘straight razors’?” “”Um…yes…some,” I replied, somewhat stunned by her unexpected question. “The owner doesn’t want to sell these here and wants me to put them on ebay and I know nothing about them.” She next pulled out an old white enameled pan contain two straight razors cases and two comb razors. I said I know nothing about the comb razors (other than ebay is filled with them), and so took a look at the straights. One case read, “Geogre Wostenholm & Son, Sheffield” the other, “Frederick Reynolds, Sheffield” I asked her if she was willing to sell these, as I told her they were nice razors and there is demand for them. She replied, “Do you want them? I’ll make a you a good price so I don’t have to bother with the whole ebay thing. $15?” I said, “For both? They are worth much more on ebay.” So we settled on $25 for the pair. I came back to the car and my wife simply rolled her eyes when she saw what I had purchased. The ‘Wostey’ with horn scales (one crack), but the heavy blade is in excellent shape. The Freddie Reynolds; scales a bit rough near the pivot point, but the ‘fine damascus’ blade appears to be in decent shape. For $12.50 each, I won’t complain… So it now looks like April is going to be equally busy with so many razors to clean polish & hone!
Wow... a busy month indeed! Great hauls. Be sure to report on that shave soap. With olive oil as the first ingredient, I'm doubtful of it's lathering abilities, but you never know.
I hope to try out the soap puck this weekend. MEM Olive shave cream makes fantastic slick & thick lather, so we'll see how this beer & olive soap perform.
Wow, I've yet to ever stumble on a jackpot haul like that. Congratulations. Hope they all shave great!
The next step is to prioritize as to which razor can I immediately get 'up & running' and which do I need to send to a pro to mend. The ones needing replacement of the scales (J. Rodgers & Sons 7/8; Wostenholm 7/8) will probably need to go to Glen @gssixgun (His Site) so they are done properly.
Looks like California is to be movie stars and cement ponds nice haul Sir I really like the Joseph Rodgers SWEET. It has a nice smile makes me want to learn how to use one.
