Thread: Shave ready?

Hi,
Can anyone tell me what is meant by the term shave ready or presharpened when buying a straight. Although not exactly new to this the terminology is new.
I recently purchased a 7/8 carbon Thiers Issard from Classic Shaving described as presharpened.
I have other razors which I hone myself and get excellent shaves form but this razor seems a little tuggy.
Don't get me wrong I am getting close shaves from it but it's not as enjoyable a shaving experience as I expected and am getting a little irritation on the chin, seem like it needs some polish on the coticule.
My shave routine is constant, the only difference being one of my 5 razors is a stainless and they are all 6/8, could this be a factor or are my expectations unrealistic for a presharpened razor.

Joey

QUOTE: As a customer service, the razors in our Thiers-Issard inventory labeled "PRESHARPENED" have been additionally hand honed in the USA by a ClassicShaving Sharpening Expert before being returned to our inventory. The razors without this decription have been sharpened by Thiers-Issard in France and have not received additional sharpening. Most of our "PRESHARPENED" razors may be ordered, by phone or email, without the additional sharpening, at a 15.00 reduced cost.

It's a little confusing to me. The "PRESHARPENED" tag indicates that they are shave ready, but they say "most", which implies not all.

They have a good reputation. I'm sure if you contact them & explain the situation they'll be able to sort it out.

It's also confusing because apparently the presharpening comes after the sharpening!

I'm sure they meant preshave-resharpened and just compressed things a bit.

I've been wondering how much the old YMMV may fit into the equation ? I'm thinking of the different results shavers get with various DE blades. Referring to brand new DE blades I've seen polls on another forum where guys rate their favorites or best versus worst. It always interested me to see that some people didn't like the Gillette Swede or the Feather but liked the Derby or the Dorco. I'm not directing this to Joey's blade in particular but just the "shave ready" situation in general. There must be some YMMV with straight razors as well. No way to prove it but I bet if 10 individuals got the exact same shave ready blade there would be some variation in the impressions of those who tried them.

I agree with that, Jimmy, & even mentioned it here somewhere. It's like every other aspect of this. Everyone has a different idea of perfection & different criteria which they use to evaluate it.