Estate Sale...

I don't see many estate sales locally. They usually take the stuff to SoCal and sell it down there for whatever reason. Yesterday I walked into an estate sale that had at least 40 vintage DE, SE, and straight razors and shavettes for sale.

I had no choice but to be picky. All need work, but all will take a bevel. And at less than $4 per razor with the display case thrown in, I'm feeling pretty good about the purchase.

On the glass top are a Friedrich Reynolds 5/8 wedge, JA Henckles 4/8 hollow, and a Duble Duck Dwarf. The coffin case is original to the Reynolds and in really decent shape for a pre-1890 razor box.

Included inside the case are a Genco, Black Blox, 2 Union Cutlery Spike wedges, a Utica Cutlery 5/8(I grew up in the Utica, NY area and know where this razor came from), and a Piccadilly Circus 11/16 wedge.

Not a bad score!




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That's an awesome score...congrats!

Have fun restoring them Chris!

congrats!

Chris, that is a fantastic score!  Some of the scales look really interesting and in decent shape.  Will you be polishing some of them or replacing some with new scales that you'll make?  Also, I'm fascinated by the old coffin boxes and have a few from some of the older straights that I have.  I love the stories they tell.

Congratulations on a great find and we'll be looking forward to seeing any work you do on them, should you choose to share.

Great score, Chris! Congrats!

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Chris, that is a fantastic score!  Some of the scales look really interesting and in decent shape.  Will you be polishing some of them or replacing some with new scales that you'll make?  Also, I'm fascinated by the old coffin boxes and have a few from some of the older straights that I have.  I love the stories they tell.

Congratulations on a great find and we'll be looking forward to seeing any work you do on them, should you choose to share.

The Frederick Reynolds' scales are broken, so they will be replaced. The rest will be cleaned and saved as possible. The J.A. Henckles is original, and either bone or ivory. I don't know how to tell the difference but it is definitely a natural porous material of an off-white color. The Utica Cutlery Red Point could be the sleeping beauty of the bunch. Cleaned up very nicely, and the blade is one of the cleanest. One of the Spikes was COVERED in rust, but cleaned right off with 0000 steel wool and Flitz, and has already taken a fantastic edge.

Most of these have some uneven hone wear that will need to be dealt with, and because of that they will never be real "beauty queens", but they all seem capable of taking a bevel, so they will either join the stable and go into rotation or passed o0n ion one way or another...

Nice score, Chris and have fun restoring them.

Very nice. Like that henkels a ton.

Very nice.  Like that henkels a ton.

Yea that Henckels cleaned up beautifully. It's nice and bright with some minor age discoloration still showing after a thorough hand polishing, and the bone scales have some permanent discoloration, but otherwise she cleaned up very nicely. I had to re-pin the scales as they were really loose, but I managed to do so without completely destroying them, which is a good thing. There is a crack at the non-hinge end in one of the scales, but I was able to pin it and repair it with Super Glue, so hopefully it will be good to go for another dozen years or so...

Anyhow...that is the next one to hit the stones...a real beauty. Not sure if it is a native 4/8 or if it has been honed down to that point, but if it is the latter, it is suffering from less hone wear than some of the others that came with it, and whoever wore it down did it evenly, which is nice...