# vintage razor info?: "THE HACKETT, WALTHER GATES HDWE CO. ST. PAUL, MINN."



## Justin0505 (Oct 25, 2013)

A friend picked up an old straight razor form an antique store and I just polished it up and sharpened it. There was the usually splotchy light oxidation and minor pin-hole pitting that carbon steel gets from sitting around un-oiled for muli-decades and a very small chip in the primary bevel, but, other than that this thing was in remarkable shape. The blade is super thin and seems very evenly ground. 
The handle which looks to be early plastic or maybe bakelite, is in good shape and still fits snug to the blade. 
The nicely done etching on the blade reads "Barber's Choices" and the makers stamp reads "400" and then "THE HACKETT, WALTHER GATES HDWE CO. ST. PAUL, MINN." 
I'm currently living in St. Paul, so I thought that this was an interesting piece of local history. I've seen some fancier ones on the internet and read that some are also stamped with "Germany" but this one is not. So, I'm just wondering if any of you razorphiles know anything about the company or the razors. I wonder if they had some of their fancy consumer models forged in Germany because that's what consumers thought was the best quality, but made their no-frills professional models locally? Also interesting that there appears to be so much steel left. I would think that most barber shops woulda ground though these things pretty quickly. Maybe that chip happened and it just went into a drawer to "fix later" and never came back out until a generation later when the antique shop bought it at an estate sale? 

Anyway, it's fun to imagine the adventures of old things, and any fuel for my day-dreaming is welcome. 
Also, I've long been resisting the siren call of the straight razor world as I don't need another expensive hobby, but the fun I had refurbing this old thing has me teetering on the edge of a rabbit hole. I've actually got the "wet shaving" section of Lefty's Sharp and Shiny Shop and the Razor section on Aframes both open on other tabs right now....:help3::cliffhang:


pics:


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## skiajl6297 (Oct 25, 2013)

Unfortunately nothing to offer on this specific razor, but watch yourself - the straight razor universe is indeed yet another rabbit hole as you suspect. I have no regrets, but my knife budget hasn't benefited from my straight razor shaving hobby. Because you can't shave with just a razor, oh no. You need 17 soaps and/or creams, a ridiculously expensive hunk (or 10) of a specific grade of an angry animal's hair to massage said soap into your face, a gorgeous strip of horse butt leather to strop your razor on, about 14 stones from various strata to hone and polish your bevels on, pre shave oil, after shave products, alum blocks to stem the bleeding, fragrances, etc. Dangerous territory indeed.

Go for it!!


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## Justin0505 (Oct 25, 2013)

... this is MADNESS. 

madness?.... 
THIS IS STRAIGHT RAZORS!!! 
*KICK*


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