Art of Shaving Razors

I'm ready to make the switch to a straight razor. I have been watching ebay for a while, and was thinking about trying to get one from there. My problem is that I don't know what to look for, and its so hard to tell from a picture if its going to be decent or not. I do a lot of woodworking, and sharpen a lot of tools. I have even restored a few planes that are over 100 years old. I'm just afraid if I go the ebay route, I'll end up trying to polish a turd. It turns out that I have an Art of Shaving store just a couple miles from me. How are their razors? I can see myself easily spending the hundred bucks for a new one on a bunch of worthless old ones. I guess if I start out with a good brand new one, I'll have a little better idea of what to look for. If you guys think they are good, I should be bleeding by the end of the week. :DThanks for the help.

Welcome! I'll give you both sides of the argument.

I own one of the AOS straights. Just for your information, they are re-branded TIs, and TIs are generally considered very good razors around here. Mine is a 6/8, so I would suspect that all of them are (I have the black one, FWIW). It is a beautiful razor, and I absolutely love it. I am very happy with the purchase.

On the other hand, all AOS products are generally overpriced, and you can get the re-branded products direct from the manufacturer for cheaper. However, when I bought mine, it wasn't really much more expensive that buying the equivalent TI. I think I paid around $10 for the "privilege" of buying it from AOS. But, in my opinion, the AOS versions are much, much better looking than the regular TIs. I personally don't like the gold on the regular ones.

However, you also need to know that they are not shave-ready. So, after you bought it from the store, you would have to ship it off to someone on these boards to have it honed, which would cost another ~$20 plus shipping.

Like I said though, I absolutely love mine.

If you want to purchase a new razor you can purchase from classicshaving.com and avoid the extra charges for the "AOS" logo on what is a lower end TI. The DOVO Special Tortoise with the honing service would be a great option.

Welcome! And yes, they are rebranded Theirs-Issard razors that will need to be honed before you can use them. I agree with heavy - purchase from Classic Shaving and opt for the "pre-honed option. They'll send your razor directly to our founder, Lynn Abrams, and you're sure to get a truly shave-ready razor.

The other side of the argument would be to watch the B/S/T section of this site for vintage razors. Members on here sell some AMAZING vintage razors, and they're sure to be shave ready for LESS $$ than the TI. And in many cases, they'll shave BETTER!!

My 2¢

~Chris