Thread: Why is a str8 razor called str8???

Originally Posted by jhenry

Morty, I think you may be on to something there...My investigation of the name didn't turn up much, except that razor is the English corruption of the French word razeur which means "some sharp instrument used to remove hair from the face or other parts of the body."

My intuition is hinting to me that there probably was no need to distinguish staight razors from any other type of razor. A razor was a razor--until the safety razor or DE came along.

Exactly. I think the more usual french term for it is 'rasoir' - but even the french had other names for a straight razor, amongst which is "cabbage-cutter" -

Coupe-choux

Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre.

Le coupe-choux est un rasoir à lame fixe qui se replie dans le manche. Il nécessite un affutage régulier sur le cuir et de temps en temps sur une pierre à affuter. On a appelle parfois cet objet un sabre.
Remplacé dans les pays développés par les rasoirs à lame jetable, les barbiers et les coiffeurs sont presque les seuls à encore les utiliser. Deux inconvénients majeurs font qu'aujourd'hui, il est délaissé au profit du rasoir de sécurité :

• le temps de rasage (environ 30 à 45 minutes)
• la manipulation d'un tel outil requiert un réel apprentissage car pouvant représenter des risques de blessures profondes.

Les derniers grands fabricants sont Thiers Issard en France et Dovo en Allemagne.
Le coupe-choux à lame d'acier fait son apparition au Royaume-Uni à Sheffield en 1680 ; les modèles à lame pliante apparaissent à partir de 1814.[1]





From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The cabbage cutter is a razor blade fixed that folds into the handle. It requires regular sharpening leather and from time to time on a sharpening stone. It was sometimes called a sword.
Replaced in developed countries by disposable blade razors, barbers and hairdressers are almost the only ones who still use them. Two major drawbacks are that today it is neglected in favour of safety razor:

• Shaving time (about 30-45 minutes)
• handling of such a tool requires real learning and can pose risks because of deep wounds.

The last major manufacturers are Thiers Issard in France and Dovo in Germany.
The cabbage cutter blade made its appearance in the United Kingdom in Sheffield in 1680, the folding blade models appear in 1814. [1]

Poking around on google, I'm not finding any references to a 'straight razor' as a specific shaving razor until the 20th century, and the earliest references I see are in comparisons to the new (then) style of safety razors

The 'open razor' in Great Britain seems to have a longer history of usage

Originally Posted by Utopian

I don't know the reason either, but I suspect they were simply called "razors" until the safety razor came along. Only then would there have been a need to distinguish the two types.

This was my thought.

Can you imagine a word like straight could generate such theory and discourse (has even more modern day conotations).
It is a razor (a shrap thing) and is indeed straight, nuf said.
I do so enjoy ths site, and have to keep a sense of humour.

I guess straight razor or simply straight sounds less threatening than cut-throat. Most of the cuts as a result of learning were around the chin area for me though.
I think it says something that barbershops still use straights for shaves, and finishing up on the neck area after a haircut/crewcut. That was my main inspiration for learning the art of using the straight or str8.

Originally Posted by Muguser

I guess straight razor or simply straight sounds less threatening than cut-throat. Most of the cuts as a result of learning were around the chin area for me though.
I think it says something that barbershops still use straights for shaves, and finishing up on the neck area after a haircut/crewcut. That was my main inspiration for learning the art of using the straight or str8.

Amen my friend .

Originally Posted by Utopian

I don't know the reason either, but I suspect they were simply called "razors" until the safety razor came along. Only then would there have been a need to distinguish the two types.

Yep. No doubt this is the case.

It's a good question, that I never really thought about much before you asked it. I don't really know, but I did some digging trying to find out. I'm not sure there's a definitive answer, I've enjoyed reading this thread though.

In the book "Getting To Know Your Straight Razors" by Phillip Krumholz, he says on page 1 "The term 'straight' originally comes from 'straight edge razor', and was variously called a Folding Razor, a Rattler or a Gemmy Rattler, a Cut-Throat, a Shaving-Knife, and other terms over the ages." So there's a few more names to trace the origin of!

In Ritchie and Stewart's "Standard Guide to Razors 3rd Ed.", it says on page 14 "...the straight razor did in fact originate as a simple, straight-frame instrument that folded like a pocketknife, but never acquired a backspring. It was really very similar to the Old English 'penny knife' that was so common during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is likely that it acquired the name 'straight razor' from this period in it's development."

In one of Krumholz' other books, "The Complete Gillette Collector's Handbook," it doesn't look to me like King Gillette used the term "straight razor" in his advertisements, to distinguish his invention from what was in common use during that day. The term "Safety Razor" wasn't patented until 1911, though I see the term used in Gillette advertisements as early as 1904. In the first advertisements from 1903, Gillette simply referred to straight razors as "razors," and his own invention as "the Gillette razor."

Here is King Gillette quoted in this same book writing about his invention vs. straight razors, which I quote again here for the entertainment of straight razor shavers everywhere. I get the feeling here that Mr. Gillette is the sort of man who might have re-painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling with a power sprayer:

A razor is only a sharp edge and all back of that edge is but support for that edge. Why do they spend so much material and time in fashioning a backing which has nothing to do with shaving? Why do they forge a great piece of steel and spend so much labor in hollow grinding it when they could get the same result by putting an edge on a piece of steel that was only thick enough to hold an edge?

I would guess that STR8 is just a substitue for the word Straight. We see that in text messages today. Ex. L8R for the word later, and 2maro for the word tomorrow. Just my humble opinion and best guess.

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

It's a good question, that I never really thought about much before you asked it. I don't really know, but I did some digging trying to find out. I'm not sure there's a definitive answer, I've enjoyed reading this thread though.

Thanks

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

In the book "Getting To Know Your Straight Razors" by Phillip Krumholz, he says on page 1 "The term 'straight' originally comes from 'straight edge razor', and was variously called a Folding Razor, a Rattler or a Gemmy Rattler, a Cut-Throat, a Shaving-Knife, and other terms over the ages." So there's a few more names to trace the origin of!

Tim,
Now, this is good stuff...this is historical, written documentation

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

In Ritchie and Stewart's "Standard Guide to Razors 3rd Ed.", it says on page 14 "...the straight razor did in fact originate as a simple, straight-frame instrument that folded like a pocketknife, but never acquired a backspring. It was really very similar to the Old English 'penny knife' that was so common during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is likely that it acquired the name 'straight razor' from this period in it's development."

In one of Krumholz' other books, "The Complete Gillette Collector's Handbook," it doesn't look to me like King Gillette used the term "straight razor" in his advertisements, to distinguish his invention from what was in common use during that day. The term "Safety Razor" wasn't patented until 1911, though I see the term used in Gillette advertisements as early as 1904. In the first advertisements from 1903, Gillette simply referred to straight razors as "razors," and his own invention as "the Gillette razor."

Here is King Gillette quoted in this same book writing about his invention vs. straight razors, which I quote again here for the entertainment of straight razor shavers everywhere. I get the feeling here that Mr. Gillette is the sort of man who might have re-painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling with a power sprayer:

A razor is only a sharp edge and all back of that edge is but support for that edge. Why do they spend so much material and time in fashioning a backing which has nothing to do with shaving? Why do they forge a great piece of steel and spend so much labor in hollow grinding it when they could get the same result by putting an edge on a piece of steel that was only thick enough to hold an edge?

This is also good.

As you stated, these are not definitive answers or proofs and as such don't take us too far into solving the puzzle, but gets us closer than where we started. Great post

Thanks Tim