Thread: Is there any summarizing overview of the japanese straights?

Hey,

You're all making me nuts with the names and nicknames of all the japanese razors. What is for example, a common not too expensive but GOOD razor, regardless if it was forged by the grand grand son of the samurai that cut the sun in half with his breath each time he sneezed.

Just a good nice little fun shaver like that, that will do the job very well, regardless of it's heritage or the maker being the son of some famous sword smith.

Or is there some type of overview of these razors and where to get them?

Excuse me for being direct, but just wanted to point out that I care about the razor, and not the genes of the maker.

Thanks!

I had a similar question and the basic answer seems to be...

There are no simple cheap japanese straights. Which is rather unfortunate because if it turns out that I like them I'm going to have a hard time getting one on a college budget. Oh well, that's how life goes sometimes I guess.

I believe it was Old School who told me that they were only made entirely by hand by skilled smiths, and the reason they cost so much these days is that they are all, in effect customs. Basically it would be like if the only western straights on the market were Livis and Zowandas. The prices would be much higher.

Sorry to burst your bubble man, I know I was looking forward to wrangling a nice cheap old japanese straights too.

Originally Posted by DPflaumer

I believe it was Old School who told me that they were only made entirely by hand by skilled smiths, and the reason they cost so much these days is that they are all, in effect customs. Basically it would be like if the only western straights on the market were Livis and Zowandas. The prices would be much higher.

How did this work out in the past? What did the average commoner shave with in the 1700's, 1800's and predisposable 1900's? Or was it all done by barbers who used these tosuke and iwasaki? Or did they import western blades there?

Ok. So they were produced by quite a few fellows back then and were cheaper... Thanks.

Yeah, those things. I don't remember exactly what I was told, but basically that they are all made by hand by one person, start to finish.

Oh, and JimR told me the reason why they aren't a lot of old ones in good shape. Basically, they hold up very poorly. So while some people here have western straights that are hundreds of years old, Japanese straights don't last that long.