This razor was featured on the latest issue of Cigar Aficionado. Does anybody know anything about this maker?
The Straight Razor — Discommon
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This razor was featured on the latest issue of Cigar Aficionado. Does anybody know anything about this maker?
The Straight Razor — Discommon
Interesting grind on blade, is there an advantage to that? Looks like mostly machine vs. the forged type. Modern look, expensive, I would have to hear more about it to comment anymore, website not much info.
Thanks - interesting, but when I read, "when we passed 200 hours of computer modeling on the handles", I thought to myself do I want to pay $1,200 bucks for "handles" and a razor made by a knife maker...who happens to call the scales on a straight razor, "handles".....:dropjaw:
Kidding around a bit, but that is an expensive blade....:)
Be interesting to hear what Bruno has to say about the type of steel used - ZiFiNit?
I know that they have not considered the fact that the razors need to be honed.
That was exactly what I thought. How would you hone a SR with a spine like that?
Expensive letter opener?
Basically, the blade maker took his Prepper knife design and made it into a razor. I guess it could be honed with a knife sharpening jig but it sure can't be honed as a razor.
Attachment 230971
It certainly would not sharpen like any straight razor I have had. I wonder if it would ever even shave. The spine would have to have some sort of a honing jig attached to it in order to get any single stroke on the hone and at that point would the angle be correct for shaving. I think I will let other try this one out.
Very expensive rooky mistake with the weird double bevel on this RSO
How does it get honed flat on the Hones ????
Different looking pocket knife but
I am stunned that after 200 hours on a computer that is the end result and is sold out at $1200 a copy. I can see why it was featured in an issue of "Cigar Aficionado".
Bob
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
The spine would have been an easy fix with a nylon spacer. Just needs to clip on the blade round the toe and space out to the lower grind.
That lower grind is odd. Not because of how it looks but because of it's closeness to the edge. If the spine isn't corrected width wise to account for that then the edge angle is going to be insane. If it falls out of the edge angle rules then it really is an RSO. He could have corrected it on the belts by flattening the thicker spine part or stepping it.
I have to agree it looks like a knife-maker thinking razors are easy and don't have rules to follow.
Also did anyone else notice the toe spacer and where it sits in relation to the edge..... Looks like the edge is actually stopped by the spacer, on the cutting edge.... LOL.
Attachment 231040
I thought that the compound grinds were reserved for knives?
Why does one need that to cut beard?
It's very simple. These guys consider themselves to have an eye for creating unique designs. Function clearly did not come into consideration. Sadly, some poor saps probably have fallen for their BS.
Someone is buying them apparently, the black "handled" one is sold out... Those poor souls...
What a terrible concept.
200 hrs is a considerable time wasted to develop scales...especially ugly ones.
Razor concept should stay the way it is, no need for such changes.
For example, kamisori is just perfect even it has no scales
I have to agree with all of the above, ugly, lacking in functionality, impossible to hone properly yourself, and ugly... the perfect example of people with ego's big enough that they figure they don't need to do any research. They may have put 200 hrs into the "handle" design, but they clearly just decided to adapt their knife blade design, because its their "signature" look, without any thought put into the differences between a razor and a knife. "they both have blades, I don't see an issue..."
When another of their offerings is a $230 beer bottle opener they are not marketing to me or many of us here.:rofl2:
I will keep my scales out of ivory, horn, Tortoise, and bone, and they can keep their titanium, Buck Rogers razor no thanks....
I wonder what the likelihood of cutting part of your finger off by it accidentally slipping through the hole in the scales is?
Though this would explain why it was on cigar afficionado - it is a very expensive cigar cutter.
$1200.00 buys you 1.2k of ugly .
I'm kinda intrigued by other things on this company's website, but the razors - not so much. Aesthetically, the "handles" look too much like some frat guys bicep tribal tattoo circa 2004.
I'm especially amused by the idea of the scales being textured so the razor doesn't slip while your hands are wet.
It's great when designers think so far outside the box they ignore actual use-case scenarios.
This is the elephant as described by blind men.
Or what happens when physicists think they understand biology (or vice-versa!).
Sometimes interdisciplinary thinking just produces train wrecks.
I plan on everything I use while shaving on getting wet. A little soap and water on my scales helps keep them clean! I played with some more heavily textured scales this last weekend and the biggest problem I can see with then is keeping them clean. A smooth scale you can just wipe off and your done!
They made the most basic of mistakes. They naively attempted to improve upon a technology without having any understanding of that technology.