Mother of Pearl Texture - advice/help needed

Hi everybody,

I am a total noobie to the world of straight razor shaving, and of natural crafting materials, such as Mother of Pearl. (Real MOP, not imitation.)

I was just wondering if the scales on [new] MOP straight razors are supposed to be perfectly smooth, or are they usually marked with grooves and indentations you can feel when running your fingertips over their surface?

I have no way of knowing if the one I ordered (perfectly smooth on one side, one noticeable indentation/groove on the other toward the tip of the scalp) is normal or a defect! LOL Gotta love being a noobie, eh?

All thoughts and advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

Perhaps a picture would help...I have the same razor and while I consider it to be VERY smooth, the the scales still have the subtle texture of MOP which i guess could be described as having a definite tactile feel... but as I said, mine is pretty much completely smooth.

Thanks for the reply! I'd gladly post a picture, but every picture I've taken makes it impossible to actually see the indentation I'm talking about. It is something you have to look at in a certain way to see, but you can feel quite clearly. from the top of the razor (looking straight down) it looks like there is a place toward the end of one scale where the MOP is indented kind of like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ndentation.jpg

I hope this better describes what I'm talking about. Like I said, the other scale is perfectly smooth, and I have no other MOP items with which to compare.

MOP being a natural product (and a relatively scarce and delicate one) I wouldn't consider irregularities to be defects.

Pearl knife and razor scales I have seen have all been perfectly smooth, unless damaged. From your description it sounds like a manufacturing defect where the wheel has bitten the pearl. If it is that hard to spot, perhaps it is not worth worrying about though.:shrug:
Duncan.