Question About Price of Straight Razors
I'll start of by saying: New straight razor guy, very old knife guy.
I've seen a number of statements, particularly by first time razor enthusiasts, conveying the general notion that because one razor, of current manufacture, by a given maker costs more than another razor by the same maker, then the more expensive razor must, therefore, be a higher quality razor. I'd like to find out if there is any truth in this statement.
With knives, there is a wide range of prices from less than 10 bucks to many hundreds of dollars. The differences in prices can be traced directly to:
1. Country of manufacture
2. Method of manufacturing
3. Steel used
4. Scale material
5. Custom features such as engraving and/or inlays
6. Customer demand based upon the makers reputation
7. Customer demand vs product scarcity
Certainly, there is considerable overlap between the valuation of knives and razors that can be derived from this list. A razor is, after all, just a specialized form of knife. Correct? One of the components that can not be deduced from the list regarding razors, however, is: steel. When one buys a knife made from say 1095, the informed buyer knows what to expect from the steel -- assuming that it is properly tempered and properly heat treated. The buyer also knows why an identical knife made of CPM 30V costs more and why it's different from A2, for example. However, I've never seen any information about which steel is used for making non-custom razors other than the phrase carbon steel or Swedish steel or stainless. If differences in the steel used contributes to the cost differences between razors, then those differences remain a mystery to the buyer. That being the case, one must assume that any straight razor made by say Dovo, Ralf Aust, Revisor or any of the other contemporary makers is the same steel as all of the other razors made by the same maker, and further, more than one maker may use identical steel from the same steel manufacturer. If so, any differences in "quality" would have to be judged by factors that don't have any relevance to how well the different razors of a given manufacturer cut whiskers off of a face. The $100 Dovo or Ralf Aust or <fill in a maker>, would all shave hair exactly the same (depending on the quality of the honing) as the more expensive versions of the same geometry, with the price differences being due to more expensive scales, shape of the point, gold embossing, elaborate engraving, etc. None of which matter at all when it comes to shaving hair. Am I wrong?