Thread: Let's Have a Contest.

Tough. Dependable. Durable. Efficient. Simple. Underrated. Classic.
All accurate adjectives of the American straight razor.

After having owned a few of the fancy European blades with the gold etching and scalloped spines paired with exotic woods and horn scales, I've found that my utilitarian U.S. Steel gives a shave on par with anything our friends across the Atlantic have to offer. What those elaborate razors cannot offer, however, is a link to the history of my ancestors here in the States.

When I pass a Torrey, a Robeson, a Geneva/Genco, or my personal favorite, the Shumate, across my face, I'm filled with a sense of nostalgia and a connection to a simpler, prouder time in our young country's history. A time when things were made as a labor of love, not just a means to an end.

I think of all the lives and families that were supported by the wages earned in the factories that produced these little works of art. I think of the men who forged these blades and then later used them to shave themselves with.

American straights offer so much more than what is seen on the surface. What they have runs deep into the pitting of our souls as Americans. Their patina adds to their appeal. Something that cannot be buffed or sanded away...