BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Ron Stewart

"If it's got a blade, I collect it!" In the early seventies, this macho remark was often heard at knife shows and shop meets. Indeed, it was true of many blade accumulators of that day. Knives were becoming hot, price guides and information was scarce and values were often set by the "story" that was supplied by the trader. The serious knife trader/collector was easily identified because he carried his stock in a red, green or blue velvet lined knife roll which, when opened, impressively displayed his collection to the lusting eyes of all who were gathered around. More often than not, when you looked over the collection, there were two or three eye catching straight razors stuck in the edge pockets of the roll. These were always valuable because "It's the one grandpa owned" or "It came from the estate of General Fudbuster." However, precious little additional information was known about them.

Over the years, knife collecting grew and razor collecting followed. Most good knife collections contained a few straight razors. Almost every knife show had at least one dealer with a pretty good supply of razors. From time to time there would be an auction of the estate of a well known razor collector. Publications like Knife World printed articles about them several times a year. Most cutlery price guides had a chapter about them. A few books were even published just about razor collecting. Over the years interest in razor collecting did grow. With that interest has grown a need (if not a demand) for information about razors.

When a need exists, someone will step forward to fill it. Such is the case with the book "The Razor Anthology." Over the past two or three years, there has been an increasing demand for information on the history of straight razors. Shaving memorabilia, razors, barber supplies etc. have become sought after collectibles. While selecting articles for the third edition of "The Best of Knife World", the folks at the paper realized that there were a lot of articles in their files which dealt with razors. There were enough, they discovered, for an independent book on the subject.

The resulting book contains the reprint of seventy-two articles which were printed in Knife World over the past several years. The authors of these articles are certainly easily recognized by anyone who has even a casual interest in razors. They include Phillip Krumholz, Kurt Moe, Ben Meyers, John Reinschreiber, Robert K. Waits, Richard White and Mark Zalesky.

The subjects of the articles range from "Honing in on a Collecting Specialty" to "Santas and Shaving Stuff." There are many, many articles on particular companies, their histories and their contributions to shaving. The study of this kind of information allows the collector to become knowledgeable and to build his collection on a firmer foundation.

If you are an avid reader of Knife World and have been for the past twelve to fifteen years, you probably won't find much in this book that you haven't seen before. However, if you are not like the guy who reads it once and retains it forever, you need to seriously look at this book. Here, at your finger tips, in one volume, is the best collection of articles that I have seen on razor collecting. After you have read it, it needs to be placed on your bookshelf along with your other cutlery reference books.

As cutlery collectors, we should all be on the lookout for opportunities to expand our interests. This book will be a valuable resource for anyone entertaining thoughts of venturing into razor collecting.

Softcover, 246 pp.

* OUT OF PRINT * -- NO LONGER AVAILABLE