SILVER KING Early 20th Century American Straight Razor For Sale – $75

Straight Razors.  You’ve seen them in movies, legit barbershops and if you’ve been following this blog, you know I’m a passionate collector/user.  You’ve told yourself you would learn to use one – someday.  Well, friend, that day is here.  I have for you a reconditioned vintage straight razor from H. BOKER & CO. This razor […]

Straight Razors.  You’ve seen them in movies, legit barbershops and if you’ve been following this blog, you know I’m a passionate collector/user.  You’ve told yourself you would learn to use one – someday.  Well, friend, that day is here.  I have for you a reconditioned vintage straight razor from H. BOKER & CO.

This razor is BIG & HEAVY.   I think it is more of a butcher cleaver than a razor.  When it was taken to ROSS CUTLERY for reconditioning, they restored it to its former glory but the crown logo and SILVER KING etching are barely visible.  I don’t know how old this razor is but I estimate this is a mid 19th century razor.

It is a fantastic shaver.  Lots of websites will sell you razors but will tell you they are not sure if they are “shave ready.”  Well this one is.  Tested on FACIAL HAIR.  Understand something – when people pluck one of their own hairs to demonstrate sharpness, it means nothing.  It means even less when they say they have tested it on the hair on their arms.  Facial hair is coarse and tough (steel wire in some cases), and I have never seen a beard as soft as arm hair.

Still reading?  Good.

Here’s why you should shave with a straight.

1) Cool factor.  It’s old & made with quality/care in the USA.

2)It’s green (no disposable blades or plastic handles to fill landfills).

3) Disposable razors are for your significant other’s legs, pits and/or genitals.

4) Incredibly close shave.

I picked up this razor at an estate sale and took it to ROSS CUTLERY in downtown Los Angeles. It was expertly honed and reground to its former glory.  You’ll need a strop to use this razor but after that, you won’t need to pick up anything else as far as hardware.

Ready to buy?  Use this contact form and let’s set it up.  I have a collection of over 30 and will post more every month.

A little history on H. BOKER & CO. from http://www.worldknives.com/manufacturers/boker-73.html

The Boker company is among the most recognizable name in high quality hunting, culinary and pocket knives. Few if any cutlery firms in Solingen, Germany have had the success exporting their goods to the United States (and globally) as has The Boker Company.

As early as 1900, most goods produced by Boker were distributed in the US market. H. Boker & Co. in New York focused primarily on knives and scissors from Solingen.

Soon pocket knives became the primary focus of production and demand increased even more rapidly than Solingen was able to keep up with. In the early 1900s Americans in New York began their own production of Boker pocket knives.

Since the tree symbol had become well known by then and the various branches of the international Boker family enjoyed an excellent relationship among each other, it was not difficult to receive permission from the Solingen relatives to use the tree symbol also for the American products.

During WWII the friendly relationship between the two companies was interrupted. The war years were hard on the Boker company. In late 1944 the Allies bombed the Solingen area for two days and destroyed most of the cutlery producers there. few of the multude of producers escaped destruction and Boker was not an exception. At that time the Boker company was razed to the ground. In fact most archival material was lost at that time making research and identification of older models difficult or impossible.

In an interview in March of 2007, Ernst Felix, General Manager of Boker shared what he knew about this time period.

“Boker used to have a very wide range of products. They made straight razors, silverware, scissors and shears of course, kitchen cutlery and pocket knives and hunting knives. This was true until the beginning of the second World War … also, the people who were lost because they were sent out to fight [effected the production]. Things finally collapsed completely at the end of 1944 when Solingen was very heavily bombed.