Thread: Discommon

Step Right Up Folks! (in my best P.T. Barnum imitation)

I think this falls into the category of "a knife maker trying to make a razor without proper research." Did a short bit of research on the Joseph Bowen that grinds the razors and he makes "tactical" knives. Most of them look pretty uncomfortable to use, maybe better than the pictures suggest.

I like to play the devil's advocate, so I'm going to bounce this thought out there. If you could get two different bevels, with the stepped spine. Say, assuming you have thin enough hones to concentrate on the two different edges and were able to make a non-face-killing transition to the two different bevel angles, would there even be any benefit to have two bevels with different angles on the same razor? I know these are some big if's, probably impossible ones, in getting this razor honed.

Moicr bevels are common, guess I need to see how these two bevels are, but I,ll bet the man doesn't use straight razors and the scales will be bulky and with a big spacer. Typical knife guy razor, he was looking at some of the top razor guys prices and figured to cash in without any razor experience,naps far as sold out , maybe only made one so far. Tc

Just looked,ma shop selling bottle openers and wallets wants to sell a razor that looks like a knife, that is tactical according to the latest craze, personally I found a good tactical knife that we really used was pretty basic but would stand up to rough conditions, not pretty, my Randall isn't pretty at all, but if you want a razor to look like that I say spend the money, but I could buy a Jenes or a Tim Zowada for that. Tc

Looking at it again, if you are constantly having the smaller grind spine on the stone, you should be able to hone the larger grind portion (albeit with its 'spine' raised off of the stone). However, you'd have to relearn honing pressures, if it would even be possible to get it right. ...not worth it.

So from what I can gather. "discommon" is a design company. They design the product then source it out to be made.
I'll agree, it seems to have alot more "knife" influence then razor.
I know some of the earlier ones were ground by a guy named Joseph Bowen ( knife maker I assume)
I was thinking I also ready somewhere that hart may be grinding them (?) but that could be completely wrong.
Also saw a pic of the razor emporium guy honing one up...

Of course, it would also have to be able to be stropped...

Save your money, like has been said if you want to spend that kind of money go with someone who makes razors for a living. Geometry is more important than aesthetic design. Imo design follows function and in this case it looks like they got it wrong.....

-6/8 Inch Blade height
-Z-FiNit blade steel is a nitrogen steel - a family of steels that offer extreme corrosion resistance
-After water jet profiling and surface grinding, Peters Heat Treat achieves between 60-61 rockwell hardness on the blade
-The unique "dual concave grind" blades are hand ground by Joseph Bowen in his signature style, with enough concavity to still -allow traditional honing (the "step" tapers to zero at cutting edge and the concave keeps it off the stone)
-Final hone is completed at Razor Emporium by Eric Engle to ensure a shave ready razor is shipped out.

So that is the official line on the how to hone....

I agree with everyone here. The problem as I see it....is even if you get the blade down to even at the bevel, the first or second time you actually have to re-hone beyond a superficial touch-up, you will seemingly be flattening off a portion of that "step" in the middle between the grinds. Obviously the guy who designed this has no idea what the functional purposes behind hollowing are, much less spine design or geometry as far as I can tell.

My last problem here is really that this company hasn't even taken the time to use a single term native to straight shaving. No mention of hollow grind according to tradition, toe type, or for that matter anything. Handle was mentioned previously versus scale...just seems a bit wonky to me.

As for the honing at razor emporium....looks like a nice site...I won't make any judgement there whatsoever as I have no experience with them.

No experience with their honing service, but have had some service issues, no bashing, just will probably do my businness with someone else. Tc

Originally Posted by Denvernoob

As for the honing at razor emporium....looks like a nice site...I won't make any judgement there whatsoever as I have no experience with them.

Well, put it this way, there's a guy named Leighton, or Master Diao, or Master Lee, or whatever who does or did their honing in the past.