Thread: Filarmonica Nomenclature

I just want to present my new #14 Filli







It is a quite simple one, made of carbone steel, no blade etching, no decorated spine etc. It is not declared as a "Doble Temple", "Novodur" or "Sub Cero" either. The words "Jose Monserrat Pou" or "fabricacion Espanola" are missing, too. The razor came in a cardboard box from a Spanish cutlery and perfumery. I own three Fillis, a #13 Doble Teple, a #12 Doble Temple and the #14 shown above. Does anyone know something about my #14? Is it some kind of an unspectacular cheaper budget model?

Regarding terms of steel quality:

- The # 13 has been my favourite razor for a long time, just until I got my Böker King Cutter. It is a superb and smooth shaver. It's sharpness has gone a bit over the last time. I think it was hone on some kind of diamond film, instead of on water stones. Maybe if it was honed the traditional way, it would have kept it's extreme sharpness a bit longer. By the way I have extrem tough stubbles, I don't expect razors to hold their edge as they might could do with people having less corase beard. I'll give it a touch up soon

- The #12 was honed by myself. Honing went quick and easy, it took an sharper edge as the #13, but was a little bit aggressive in the beginning. Now it shows the great smoothness, Fillis are famous for. I did not use this razor much, so I can't comment on it's ability to hold an edge

- My newst one, the #14 was really painful to hone. Because of a nick at the point, I had to shorten the blade for about 2mm. It is now nearly 8/8" broad (2,3cm). Shortenng the blade on the 1k hone did not work well, I had to use 240 grit sandpaper. Honing took several hours. The massive tang draws the blade away from the stone, so you have to pay an enormous amount of attention, the blade touches the hone's surface all the time. An even greater problem was the hardnesse of the steel. It tokk several hours to set an initial bevel, able to cut hair from my arm. I succeeded in finishing it the second day. After chromium oxide and leather, the edge nearly felt dull on skin of my thumb. Well, I tried shaving with it the next day and that worked surprisingly well. Meanwhile, after the third shave it finally passes the hanging hair test. It is a decent and smooth shaver, but my Doble Temple models a little bit better.

Having lots of 4/8" blades, shaving with the heavy #14 with it's dangerous spike point was a little bit tricky at the first shave, but I can handle the blade quite well now.