Thread: A Platinum Str8 Razor....?

Do any of you know the properties of a Platinum razor? Is is hard like the stainless? - or not. Does it hold an edge? Is it easy or hard to hone?

Thanks -

Do you mean a brand called Platinum or a razor made of Platinum? I've never heard of any such brand myself. Platinum in a straight is doubtful. Its a precious metal costing more than 2x as much as gold and is much too soft for a straight. They use it to coat DE blades and electric razor combs. Its supposed to increase comfort but it wears off fast. It would serve no purpose in a straight.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Do you mean a brand called Platinum or a razor made of Platinum? I've never heard of any such brand myself. Platinum in a straight is doubtful. Its a precious metal costing more than 2x as much as gold and is much too soft for a straight. They use it to coat DE blades and electric razor combs. Its supposed to increase comfort but it wears off fast. It would serve no purpose in a straight.

I feel really stupid. A dumb question, but I can answer it now: The word Platinum, in this case, refers to a manufacturer stateing the word Platinum on one of their products, there by meaning it it the best. Like "better than gold". It has nothing to do with Platinum!

Yea, I am stupid. -...but I now know. You know some of the disposable razors are coated with Platinum, or so they say.

Thanks fer chimin' in....

Don't worry it's not a stupid question, any question you don't know the answer to is a good question.

I've not heard of platinum razors either, other than platinum coating on mass produced blades as thebigspendur says. I can't really see the point of it to be honest, I suspect it's marketing BS but I stand to be corrected!

At a guess, if I saw a "new" razor being sold with the word 'platinum' in the name, it would start ringing alarm bells, rather like the large numbers of cheap mass produced straights for sale on Ebay with descriptions like "Best Quality", "Finest Quality" etc - they often turn out to be garbage.

Just my $0.02.

I am not a metallurgist, but I do know that some brands of disposable blades have trace elements of platinum in their coating. apparently this is to make it more durable.

While pure platinum is supposed to be soft, Platinum alloys can supposedly be hardened up to 90 rockwell (imagine honing that )

So I don't think it is technically impossible to make a platinum straight razor.
However, the price might be a bit on the expensive side.

When you look at the wording of models of straight razors produced in the old days remember that there were no consumer protection laws back then so makers could put anything they wanted on the razor to make it sound really super. Really when you think about it its no different with cars. Usually there is a custom model which is the stripped model, then the deluxe which is the normal model, then the Luxury, then the sport and many times a luxury sport. I guess you could substitute metals like the credit card makers do and call them silver cards, gold cards,platinum, titanium and I guess call the worst card the iron card. The bottom line is the titles mean nothing. The important thing is the manufacturer, the metal and processing, the grinding and honing and the type of scales and decoration on the blade if any.

That was like when I was buying my car this year the woman was trying to sell me additional "platinum" warranty. I told her no so she dropped down to "Gold" coverage. I told her lets save some time and goright to the "lead" coverage because thats all you will be able to hit me up for.