"New" Boker 6/8 Silver Steel.....

That blade would look a whole lot better if you washed the oil off of it. Sure Wacker made blades are hard to establish the initial bevel because the steel is hardened to 62Rc so that the edge will last. Someone who knows what they are doing can hone one up using a 4000/8000 Norton in about 30-45 minutes depending on the razor.

BTW - what do you think a French point is supposed to look like?

I hope you are not trying to tell us that TI has never had any quality issues - I still have pictures!

All in all I'm sure glad I never purchased one of these ugly malformed razors. Ya right!

If this thing isn't a re-branded Wacker, than a Lexus isn't made by Toyota. They sent me the "wrong" certificate of "authenticity" (they sent me one for the less expensive "King Cutter" model) the scales are uneven, The head is unevenly ground, the pattern etched into the spine isn't straight and runs off the side of the spine towards the shank, the pivot is pretty loose, the "French Tip" isn't really a french tip, and there are scuffs on the shank and tang, and the razor is nowhere near shave ready.







A kind fellow by the name of "Frank" sent me the following email....

Hi Joel,
my name is Frank and i am from germany.I have seen your Thread " Boker
Silver Steel" in the B&B-forum.Your Thread was discussed in the german
forum "http://www.gut-rasiert.de/forum" .
I also think that your Boker is a rebranded Wacker razor.But it is not the
same blade to your Wacker razor.Propably is this Wacker Razor similar to
your boker:

http://wacker-rasiermesser.de/rasiermesserneuheiten/45909c99491348604.html

I think Wacker produced for boker.I have bought 3 Razors from Wacker,very
good blades,but neither was ready to shave out of the box.These damn
things are out of the box often totally unusable (just as your boker).I
have honed the edges from all Wacker razors 3-4 hours.After that the
Wacker Razors are great!But when i buy such high-price-razors,i demand a
shave-ready razor.
I also think the boker razors are totally overpriced (and the Wacker
Razors meanwhile too).Two months ago Mr.Wacker made big price rise(50 %)!!!
The new King Cutter from Boker costs for example 229 Euro.By ebay i get a
vintage King Cutter for 50 Dollars(and i think the vintage King Cutters
are better and more attractive).Everybody to be targeted to profit from
the Straight-Razor-Hype,it is a shame!
I hope this informations can help you a little bit and sorry for my bad
english!
Greetings,
Frank

Click to expand...

Well - my good friend Frank hit this one RIGHT on the nail. Look at the razor on Wackers site he linked to......



That wacker has the IDENTICAL blade profile, spine pattern, pins, scales, and spacer. It's the IDENTICAL razor... well... save for being less expensive, and with a nicer gold wash on the blade Boker told me these were made in house... well, unless Wackers shop is in a building owned by Boker (which for all I know could be) they out an out lied.







More bad news.... it's the same **** poor quality of a wacker razor. Basically, you pay extra money money for the Boker logo's, and the pretty box... other than that, you're paying $350 for a wacker. Ugh - I'm gonna be sick! After TWO HOURS on a DMT Coarse plate, I finally got a workable bevel on the blasted razor This was the worst off "new" razor I have EVER experienced. I mean there was ZERO edge on the razor, and the shoulder was totally uneven, and the blade/edge itself wasn't totally straight, so it took REALLY a lot of work to get the damn thing serviceable - and now the shoulders of the razor are all honed down/flattened up quite a bit, which make it look like a pretty well used razor. I can't imagine them sending a razor out like this... I mean if you only had a Norton 4/8K, it would literally takes days of honing on the 4K side to get anything serviceable out of the damn thing. It was a horrible experience to hone the razor up, and I cannot even remember the last time it took me even 1/4 the time to hone up a razor.

The head is ground unevenly, notice the right side much more flat/ground than the left....




Here's the pattern on the spine running off the side of the spine towards the tang





Well... there is SOME good news. Once it's tuned up and you've got a good bevel establish, and you've polished the edge with a good finishing stone, this is actually a mighty fine shaver. While not the best, it is a really first rate shaver... I'd still personally prefer a TI to this sucker ANY day, but i'd say this is a notch above a Dovo.





Overall - a BIG time on this razor. This is REALLY an embarrassment to have associated with Boker, and with a price of well over $300, this thing is WAY out of it's league. For $350, you're into custom razor territory, or REALLY high end production razors, both of which in my opinion will be built better, will look better, will shave better, and will take little to no effort to hone up, and have working beautifully. This razor is worth about $120-30 TOPS based on the shoddy build quality and the poor fit and finish. In the real world, where we have countless options, this thing just can't hack it. Pick up a vintage Boker, or a new TI/Dovo, save yourself some time, energy, cash and frustration.

TO DISCUSS THIS REVIEW, PLEASE SEE THIS THREAD!