Thread: Craig Barr Straight razor - Rolling review

Originally Posted by honorakr

That is great to hear, when it comes in the mail and you start shaving with it please add to the rolling review , two peoples review is a lot better then ones'.

OK I will do that if I get one.

I have one of his earlier razors, and i got it for a very good price considering what they are going for now. I just havent had the time to put it into scales, they are way bigger than a traditional straight. It does appear to be good craftsmanship. I might just send it out for scales instead of doing them myself. I'd like to see what others are doing as far as scales!

we can all probably forget good prices now!

When he first started making razors about a year or so ago he was using salvage material, he and I had a talk about O-1 & 1095... Craig seems to be a pretty descent guy & a good craftsman, however I can't speak for his heat treatment knowledge or methods.

My 9/8 1095 arrive today. My first 9/8, it jumped out as pretty huge at first. The back end of the razor (tang and shank) is really wide -- noticeably wider that a Fili #14. At the same time, the front end of the razor tapers off to a fairly narrow point.

I tried putting the blade in a pair of Ebony scales that I had been using for a 7/8 Fili #14 . The toe end of the Craig Barr is narrower than the Fili as your can see below by the pics. The blade is too wide for the scales ( I would need to narrow the wedge to compensate. At any rate, the scales pair pretty well with the razor:




I will report back on the edge later. I did a quick HHT, and it popped hairs. I will be curious to see how the edge is after stropping on some Crox

I think you have more issues with the scales than just the wedge,Nice looking blade

I just stropped the bad boy 15x on Crox (latigo) followed by 20 linnen / 45 roo. It yielded a really nice edge. Hanging hairs went flying.

Will bring it out for a shave tomorrow and report back.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I think you have more issues with the scales than just the wedge,Nice looking blade

I agree. These scales fit a Fili 14 just right, but are too small for the 9/8 blade. With regards to the wedge, I was thinking that a narrower wedge would cause the blade to stop before the bottom would stick out.

I plan on putting on a new, proper set of scales soon.

1/7/15- did a shave before going out tonight. I am trying out an idea, working the canvas side of the strop more then usual. Since the blade is so thick and the material is very hard ,I have been doing close to 30 pass on the canvas side instead of the regular 10. I also noticed that I can't rotate on the shank as easily if I was using a classic sized razor. Still shaves smooth and no irritation. On the subject of the strop this thing definitely would benefit from a super wide strop.I'm still waiting for the scale material to come but I did notice that the temp scales I'm using need to be adjusted to accommodate the tail more.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I think you have more issues with the scales than just the wedge,Nice looking blade

I did say you will need to make custom scales for this razor, i tried a 7/8 scales at first and it was woefully inadequate.The hard part i noticed is finding scale blanks big enough to aaccommodate the blade.