Thread: Art of Shaving - cheapest place for "singing" TIs?

All this guessing, is it this metal or that metal or this razor or that razor. There are no discount stores for razors guys. You get what you pay for and the sales of razors is such that the few places that sell them have no trouble unloading them. I think you can figure based on the price the relative quality comparing one to the other. However if you want to know contact one of the major vendors like classic and ask them.

Thanks for the post!

Well, from Ignatz's review it would seem that indeed your razor is made from the "new" steel. It has the double bands on the tang, and a letter denoting what heat treatment batch the blade went through.

In my opinion: same metal + same shape=great deal! (Damn....my credit card is heating up...must control purchase urge...........GGGGGGggggggggggggggggggaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA.. ..)

In the Dovo lineup you can get the #41 stainless blade for $119 in simple ebony scales, or pay ~$300 for the same blade with MOP scales. For me, I could give a damn about scales, and certainly wouldn't pay the extra premium for scales. For a better blade? Sure.

The Silverwing has very nice cocobolo scales, and was the first of the new steel blades to be released, so they charged a premium for them.

I love the pic of the razor on your desk. Nice!

Razor deliveries made at work so SWMBO is none the wiser....

I see you are working on blade angle, tragetory and velocity diagrams on the whiteboard in the background. You can never be too prepared!

One more thing:

Please tell us how it shaves!!!

I have a TI from AoS and I'm pretty happy with it. It also hones up nicely with just one pyramid on the 4k/8k and 40 or so passes on the Chinese 12k. Holds a nie edge for about 20 or so shaves. It is also balanced very very well and almost floats through your fingers ans you maneuver the blade.

Worth the cash.

I noticed that my TI is stamped X instead of Q. Is there a difference?

Doug

Originally Posted by JetHed

I have a TI from AoS and I'm pretty happy with it. It also hones up nicely with just one pyramid on the 4k/8k and 40 or so passes on the Chinese 12k.

Is the tang the same as shown in my picture?

Originally Posted by JetHed

I noticed that my TI is stamped X instead of Q. Is there a difference?

I believe the letter indicates production batches of blades.

Progress, finally!

I did more very light (rolling x) laps on the DMT 1200 than I can to mention and only managed to get the the toe sharp. Out of frustration, I did about 50 with a little pressure, which got the whole cutting edge grabbing, then cutting arm hairs. I don't know whether it was a coincidence or this just needed a little pressure, but I'd think it's the former. At any rate, I did another 50 or so very light laps on the DMT, then progressed through the Norton 4K (100+ laps), 8K (75 laps), coticule (400 laps without slurry), and Nakayama (100 laps), plain linen (50 laps), and plain leather (75 laps).

I shaved with it this morning and got a good shave. It was about as close as I usually get and very comfortable. It's stiffer and heavier than most full hollows its size and cut hairs more quietly. It felt nice and soft on my face (which most razors do after the Nakayama). It seemed to shave closer and cut whiskers better at the end of the blade near the heel, so I should be able to improve the edge further with more time on the hone.

I don't have a Silverwing, but I'm confident that this is different (harder) steel than regular TIs. Production economics being what they are and this blade being physically indistinguishable from the Silverwing blades, I'd bet it's the same blade as the Silverwing.

I'd recommend this razor as a nice razor at a very nice price, but be prepared to spend way more time honing than anyone should have to do with a brand new blade. Even though this razor didn't have any geometry problems, it took a lot of time on the DMT 1200 to set a sharp bevel and a lot of strokes on each subsequent hone to wipe out earlier hones' scratch marks.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

All this guessing, is it this metal or that metal or this razor or that razor. There are no discount stores for razors guys. You get what you pay for and the sales of razors is such that the few places that sell them have no trouble unloading them. I think you can figure based on the price the relative quality comparing one to the other. However if you want to know contact one of the major vendors like classic and ask them.

I consider that response, ironically, condescending. It's well known that many manufacturers sell the same items under different labels. It's a way for them to increase profits by increasing sales and production efficiency without diluting the value of their premium lines. Of course, to protect their premium sales, manufacturers are loathe to disclose that they're selling the same basic product as two different things, so asking TI or Classic is unlikely to reveal reality.

I'm not saying that this must be TI's new steel just because it's the same shape as the new forgings, but it I still think it might be and I continue to be interested in others thoughts on the matter.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Please tell us how it shaves!!!

I'll be happy to, once I get it honed up . . .

The razor was clearly dull in the middle when I received it, so I marked the bevel with a Sharpie and sat down with the Norton 4K. After a bunch of strokes on that, I realized that TI either rounded the bevel or honed it with something like tape on the spine, because (while the back of the bevel was making good contact) the edge of the bevel wasn't making contact with the stone in the middle of the blade. So I went back to the DMT 1200. So far, I've spent about 20 minutes on that, but I still haven't gotten the bevel to the edge. Between that and the fact that there's essentially no incremental wear on the spine, I've concluded that this is hard steel.

Steve,

The new TIs are supposed to be made from a really high carbon steel which is hardened to near file temper and is reported to be a real bear to hone. I think the Silver Wing was the introductory razor made from the new steel. Friend and local razor cognoscenti and honemeister, Randy Tuttle, when asked how things went when he honed a Silver Wing for someone answered essentially, "grrrr". I think this means the new TIs will be really grrrrreat razors once thoroughly honed.

Honing update: I've just spent another 40 minutes doing light-pressure laps on the DMT1200 and I've eliminated the double bevel along almost the entire length. Where I've honed out the double bevel, it's popping arm hairs like no other razor I've honed at the 1200 DMT stage.

I'm now feeling like Randy apparently felt; I'm giving up for the evening.

This is certainly interesting. It will be good to find how the blade shaves. If I understand correctly the batch of steel that was used for the silverwings was marked as V.

The blade from AOS certainly looks to have a similar profile to the new silverwing blades, but is marked as W