Best Vintage Razors?

Best is a hard question. Best as far as collectible razors or are we looking at shaving performance?
Vintage Collectables I'd have to say my Toggles, Eclipse Red Rings, Apollo Ben Hur Adjustable, Chromium NEW Deluxe Big Boy along with my 34.36 46/47 and Brit 15, and 22 Aristocrats and Gillette popular and I can't forget my Gibbs 15 and 17 adjustables.

Best shaving Vintage razors:

DE razors in no particular order.

NEW Deluxe Big Boy
Gibbs 15 & 17 adjustables
Gillette Toggle, Fatboy and Slim
Brit Aristocrat 15
Apollo Ben Hur Adjustable
Rotbart Extra Monde
Vintage Merkur Progress
Hoffritz Slant

SE
Schick Type M adjustable injector with a Japanese Twin blade.
Gem MMOC PTFE Blades
Gem 1912 PTFE Blades

Can pretty much get a BBS shave with any of the above but each one gives a unique shaving experience in my opinion and I love variety.

This thread needed a revival. I don’t know if the RFB is King but, I will say that Gillette got it right nearly a century ago with this creation. In My experience and MY humble opinion, it’s the best Gillette razor I’ve ever shaved with. There are many great Gillette’s out there that could fit the bill as the best ever, this one though is the Pinnacle of shaving tool greatness in my book...

The handle is an aftermarket RR UFO handle. I would also like to take a moment to thank the gentleman right before this post, Frank or Dragonsbeard for gifting me this razor. He knew that I have had a fascination with the RFB and he offered this fine example to me without hesitation. A class act and again, one of the finest gentlemen in the shave forums. Thanks Frankie, I owe you one....

This thread needed a revival. I don’t know if the RFB is King but, I will say that Gillette got it right nearly a century ago with this creation. In My experience and MY humble opinion, it’s the best Gillette razor I’ve ever shaved with. There are many great Gillette’s out there that could fit the bill as the best ever, this one though is the Pinnacle of shaving tool greatness in my book...

The handle is an aftermarket RR UFO handle. I would also like to take a moment to thank the gentleman right before this post, Frank or Dragonsbeard for gifting me this razor. He knew that I have had a fascination with the RFB and he offered this fine example to me without hesitation. A class act and again, one of the finest gentlemen in the shave forums. Thanks Frankie, I owe you one....

Good on you Frank and congrats on an amazing specimen Gus !!

Fatboy. Still my favorite razor, even over my Rex, Blackbird, ATT H1, and Copper Ascension.

This thread needed a revival. I don’t know if the RFB is King but, I will say that Gillette got it right nearly a century ago with this creation. In My experience and MY humble opinion, it’s the best Gillette razor I’ve ever shaved with. There are many great Gillette’s out there that could fit the bill as the best ever, this one though is the Pinnacle of shaving tool greatness in my book...

The handle is an aftermarket RR UFO handle. I would also like to take a moment to thank the gentleman right before this post, Frank or Dragonsbeard for gifting me this razor. He knew that I have had a fascination with the RFB and he offered this fine example to me without hesitation. A class act and again, one of the finest gentlemen in the shave forums. Thanks Frankie, I owe you one....

Your most welcome my friend and speaking of class acts just take a look in the mirror my friend, Enjoy the RFB and I like the handle you choose for it.

The four vintage razors that are still in my rotation are the Gibbs adjustable, 2 RFBs, and a New Deluxe.

In order of my preference:

Gratiot Krect Spiral Curve Slant
Gillette New Improved
Gibbs #15
Gillette New Long Comb

To partially answer the original poster's question. Anything modern has already been done and done as good or better in the vintage realm when it comes to DE razors.

For example if you want a Rube Goldberg over engineered razor you'll never see someone produce today regardless of how it shaves look to the Stahly live blade razor.

The geometry of the razors heads have already been made to the extremes of mild to wild and all stops between including varying shave angles and blade exposures in the vintage realm. There has been no innovation what so ever just more of the same but made out of stainless steel or other metals than traditional brass or zamak for the majority of the vintage razors. So it seems what people are chasing is aesthetics more so than performance when buying tools that cost 3 or mores times as much as something still around that performs as well. The built to last on the modern stuff is moot argument since if the vintage stuff wasn't a built to last there wouldn't be so much of it out there still. With that said not everyone wants used tools for whatever reasons and there certainly are good performing modern razors among the over and underpriced turds so it is a matter of what is value to individual.

What do I think are the best vintage razors. Personally I have found SE blades that are thicker are the better mouse trap for shaving than any DE blade. With that said I've DE shaving almost exclusively for 7+ years before using an SE razor and owned and used 100+ different vintage razors in that time. The ones I think are the best are the ones I still own that I didn't buy as investments or to try and still use when I want to switch things up.

Those are
Gillettes
Super adjustable 84, the Super 109 is right there also but a little more aggressive for each equivalent dial setting
1947 first iteration 40s style Super Speed - there are 3 versions of this razor the 1st one is one of best razors Gillette ever made
1946 - 1948 US made Aristocrat
1936 - 1938 Sheraton

others
Famex adjustable both cage styles
Famex 3pc open comb
Bohin
Shake Sharp all 3 makes, MKI and MKII with the bakelite handles are slightly more aggressive
Barbasol floating head razor - this is made by Conrad and can be found under other brand names and unbranded.

An honorable mention even though I don't own one anymore and why is the Gibbs adjustable razor.
It is a great shaver but requires blade modification to use one. If I knew about some of the 3d printed blade holder options for the razor to make it easier to use and modify blades I would have kept mine. The other reason is the Rex Ambassador shaves just like this razor but without all the quirks so that is my modern replacement I kept in place it.

All great selections gentlemen and of course most, if not all, of the current modern artisan razors are direct decedents of their vintage brethren. I would suggest a "best or collectable" razor as one's "birth" razor - maybe even replated/colored to restore or change its luster/color to offer that uniqueness of "your" razor. And if you can find your father's or grandfather's razor that may be "priceless" irrespective of it's condition.

I have kept only the following vintage razors out of my whole collection:

RFB 44 set
British Angel Razor Goodwill
FB tech
Gillette SC red and black set