Thread: What makes a razor good, better, best?

You might try sending a PM to Mike Blue. He is a member who is very familiar with steel in general and steel for razors in particular. As gugi noted the heat treatment of the steel is all important regardless of the alloy. Back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were beginning to use crude, by today's standards, pyrometers but a lot of it was probably done by eye.

IIRC Josh Earl and Mike Blue were going to take old blades from various eras and manufacturers and analyze them for metallurgical content, hardness and what have you. I donated a junk Cattaragaus to the project but I believe it never did ge off the ground. If you want to know which of the old brands was the "best" I don't think that is doable.

Some of all of them are great and some of all of them are probably mediocre. Part of the fun of RAD and honing/shaving with them is the gamble of which you ended up with.

Originally Posted by Stubear

This is unfortunately one of those impossible questions as its really all down to personal taste..!

In general, good steel will be hard enough to take and hold a good shaving edge, but not so hard that it becomes chippy and brittle, and it will be able to be polished to a good smooth edge without micro chipping. But the rub is that different people will prefer the feel of different steel on their skin.

For example, I really like DD's. I think they shave so well that its one of the few vintage razors I own more than one of. W&B is the other. But other guys might prefer Torrey's, or Reynolds or whatever.... The list goes on.

So in order to analyse the steel of the best razor, we first have to come to an agreement of what is the "best" razor? But if I'm a DD guy and you're a Torrey guy we have a problem!

Razors like Zeepks are made from poor quality steel thats too soft or poorly made to take a good edge, which is what makes them bad but again thats a generalisation on what is "good" and what is "bad".

As to what makes a DD better than a W&B? Personal choice. They're both great shavers and analysis under a scope would probably reveal a fair few similarities, but some people prefer the feel of one razor to another.

I hope my ramblings were of some help!

+1000 . Stu is right on the money, IMO. YMMV with blades. What you think is good may not be terrible in my book. So, all you can do is determine what works for you. It's a #s game

Hmmm... read through this thread with interest and although I am a noob, at straight razor shaving I am quite adept at learning.

this is the way I look at it, for example, in playing piano there is no one definitive way of playing, there are many variations in what is determined to be correct technique, usually described as 'recommended' ways of playing.

Just as there are many recommended makes of razor, Sheffield steel for example is deemed good steel and just as in playing piano or learning languages you also have to make your own mistakes to find the right recommended technique, or in this case straight razor,

Some of all of them are great and some of all of them are probably mediocre. Part of the fun of RAD and honing/shaving with them is the gamble of which you ended up with.

there is no quick way around it you need to take some risks for possibly the best shave you'll ever have.


So I look at it as, outof the good ones whats best for me, thats why I have bought four straight razors from 3 different recommended makers and I will see how I shave with them. If I don't like them I will probably post my views on this forum and see if anyone else would like to try them out.

So trial and error unfortunately, or fortunately if you've been bitten by the bug of straight razor collection, or RAD I think it is

I surrender! I knew going in that this was probably an unanswerable question, but I was interested in whatever answers I got. All the answers have been helpful at one level or another. Thanks, everyone.