Thread: New straight razor fan

I tried my first straight razor from Art of Shaving and really scraped my face pretty bad. I went back to the store and asked to exchange it because it was clearly not prehoned (although their literature clearly says they should be). The guy told me to take it to shop and pay to have it rehoned. I told him no way and instead bought a nice Thiers Issard from ClassicShaving.com--life has been wonderful since :-) See photos below. The steel handle was a TI from Art of Shaving and the one with a Red Stamina handle is from ClassicShaving.com. They are roughly around $170 each but I feel my Red Stamina blade is much better. I confirmed that it is made of Sheffield Steel too whereas the guys from Art of Shaving could never confirm or deny their TIs to be made of Sheffield Steel.

Welcome to SRP

Yes, the most important for any razor is to be properly honed. The Art of Shaving doesn't have much straight razor expertise - those are more of a novelty items for them. They are good, quality razors and it's a shame they don't have them honed. The problem really is that honing them professionally is expensive and only enthusiasts like us can afford to do it cheaply. Dovo is just the same.

If you get into hones and strops the way you got into a razor you will be looking good soon!

Nice razor!

Welcome to SRP, nice razor it looks like almost all classic's TI's are pre-sharpened which I believe Lynn here does which is why Life if good for you now and not scraping like the factory edge from AOS, very good decision.

The big difference is Lynn and a few others hone the razors for classic shaving whereas the art of shaving does absolutely nothing to hone their blades after they leave the factory.

The other razor would've been just as good if you sent it to someone on here for 13-20$.

Also buying old razors, imo, is where it's at over new blades. They're usually cheaper, especially on our classifieds and are shave ready unless they say otherwise. My best razor cost me 60$ shave ready from here. Plus I think it's way cooler to use a razor from 70 years or more ago than something just made. My Joseph Rodgers and sons Wedge is from 1860s and was only 120$ and honed. That's probably why when I used DEs I was always a vintage Gillette guy over a new Merkur guy.

Just something to keep in mind in the future. Vintage can be good if you know where to look (The Classifieds here, Ruprazor.com, Fine-razors.de, Badgerandblade.com, etc).