New Hen and Rooster straight razor

GWashington1732

GWashington1732

Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
13,240
I bought this one after my old no name one went missing (whisked away by gremlins apparently) a while back, it worked great for the $5 or $10 it cost me. For a little while I went back to a normal razor and got upset when I had to go track down someone in the store to unlock the cabinet then I had to show my ID just so they could walk me over to the register with the blades so I could pay $14 for four blades, I told them where to stick it. So for the past month or two I've been shaving with the Spey blade on one of my Case trappers.
Well, I saved my pennies, literally, for two months, and decided to buy this nice looking Hen and Rooster razor with it, figured I'd get a nice one this time. It arrived today, wrapped up in a very nice looking box and I got it out and did a little test with it and it was...dull. Not, not sharp, dull; as in, no edge whatsoever :grumpy:. So, I shaved with my pocket knife again. I'm definately returning it, if I wanted a razor dull out of the box I could have gone to WalMart and got another no name from Pakistan. I expected that I would need to strop it, maybe even touch it up on a fine hone, but having to spend the time putting an edge on it is a bit much for $60, especially considering that my $5 WalMart one only needed a little touch up. Anyone else have one of these? Did I just get a bad one or is this pretty much normal? Any recomendations on a decent one for around $60; because I'm ready to go to WalMart?
 
GWashington1732 said:
Not, not sharp, dull; as in, no edge whatsoever :grumpy:. So, I shaved with my pocket knife again. I'm definately returning it, if I wanted a razor dull out of the box I could have gone to WalMart and got another no name from Pakistan. I expected that I would need to strop it, maybe even touch it up on a fine hone, but having to spend the time putting an edge on it is a bit much for $60, especially considering that my $5 WalMart one only needed a little touch up. Anyone else have one of these?
Click to expand...

Yep... I got a Dovo "Best Quality" 6/8-inch for $75, and it had a not-so-sharp edge to begin with, but when I brought it to my ultra fine stone, I realized that the blade is warped (sharpens the middle but not the ends on one side, sharpens the ends but not the middle on the other side.)

Pretty bad experience for a first straight-razor.
 
Amazon has pretty good deals on those razor refills.Usually about 25% less than stores & free shipping too.
 
In my experience no straight razor is ready to shave straight out of the box. You have to put in the time to get it to an acceptable level of sharpness. That is pretty much standard. Sharpening a straight razor to shave ready takes time, and time costs money. Remember that straight razors have very thin blades. The final sharpening has to be done by hand; using a machine would quickly ruin the temper. If the final sharpening was done at the factory your razor would cost much more than $60.
 
There several on-line companies with a great rep that will sell u a razor that is ready to go an even do a test shave after they do the final strophing on it. Final cleaning and then disinfecting of course. If that's what you want make sure it's a service they offer and it's done to the straight razor. I have heard even within the same razor line on high there can be a big difference i'n sharpness etc that's one reason why certain retailers off this service.
 
I've decided that I like shaving with my pocket knife. I'm going to keep doing it that way. I know that if I try to sharpen this thing, I'm going to ruin it and be out $60 and there's no way I'm going to keep spending $20 on razor blade replacements every month. I like the no hassle shave I get with the Case Trapper. I think I'll spen the money on some new sharpening stones or a new strop instead, my home-made one's petty worn out.
 
I know I just recommended him yesterday, but check out Larry's supply of shave ready vintage straights at Whipped Dog... You'll be able to get a couple shave ready straights for your $60 there...
 
Send it to have it honed then buy an old barbers hone to do the touchups yourself.

You can send it to Larry at the link amcardon posted and have it honed for $13 and get a barbers hone for $17. $30 and you are back in business with the hen and rooster.
 
I have heard really good things about Larry's work on straight razors.

Good luck, and please post a pic of the Hen & Rooster if you ever get it fixed up properly.
 
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