Thread: My experience and some advice

Thanks for posting. Too bad about the TI. I have had some success honing such razors using a technique called the rolling X. If you haven't tried it there is a tutorial in the SRP Wiki that you can find here. If you have ever honed pocket knives with clip blades you may find it fairly easy to get the hang of.

A few things:
1. The recommendation for shaving in the evening is great for newbs. That's the only time I shaved with my str8 because I love to sleep in and would rather take the time to get the shave right in the evening.

2. That's what you get for buying French! When you want quality, go German baby! I'm a big fan of the Solingen blades and own a Dovo I absolutely love. While the TI's look great, I've heard nothing but mixed reviews. Some awesome, some just like yours. It's sad really...they have such potential. They just need better QA so blades like that don't get sold.

I think you're right about the aesthetic quality of those razors. I haven't owned either a Dovo or a new TI, but I have honed some for members and shaved with a few and although the TI's tend to need a little more work out of the gate to get shave ready, IMO the shave is well worth it. It's fantastic steel. At least it was last year. I can't speak for the new steel they are using. Some like it better, some don't.

X

I love your insight in a diamond paste pasted strop for easier sharpening !
Do you have the strop sides pasted with different grits?

Can anyone care to comment more on this idea?

Thanks for your comments everyone!
The paste I use is 0.5 micron diamond paste. I frankly don't understand how the hone-meisters get similar results with the honing stone only (although I have only tried one two-grit stone, I tried this for months without anything close to comfortable results. Maybe I should have tried different stones). The stone is useful to get rid of nicks in the blade, though.

I have to admit that the TI steel seems to be of very high quality. Very nice and shiny, and I managed to get part of the blade extremely sharp. It is very possible that Thiers-Issard himself was a master razor-maker but he is of course long gone. I will check out the rolling X technique. Thanks for the tip.

Judging from Lynn's comments, he seems to be happy with some of his TI's, does anyone else have good things to say about Thiers-Issard? If so, which specific razor(s)?

TIs are OK but not currently among my favorite razors. While they sharpen up fine and shave fine, I find that I much prefer a 1/4 hollow grind in either a 6/8 or 7/8 razor.