Thread: giesen & forsthoff

Originally Posted by dudestyle01

I got a Giesen & Forstoff for a Christmas present. It has a real horn handle and looked really nice, there was a leaflet with it saying it was 'shave ready.' It wasn't. I have shaved with it, re-lathered, re-shaved, and re-lathered and shaved again, The result I got was not a very close shave at all and a very sore face. I have never honed a blade before but I stropped this one for nearly an hour; the shave afterwards was little better than the first time I tried it. I wish I had got the Dovo now.

Save your face the torture, have that blade honed.

Cool, I'm going to send mine back to GF, I think they re-hone their razors for free; hopefully it will come back better.

Dude,

Send me your razor. I will give it a honing for you. I cant promise to be as good as Grand Master Lynn, but if I can improve it for you, I will be happy to.

Originally Posted by MickR

I love my G&F (The black one pictured in my last post above). It's a great shaver, has never been a problem with putting on an edge or holding it. It's the only G&F I've experienced, and I don't know where you blokes are coming from with all these problem razors. However, I'm willing for you to send them my way if you hate them so much. Really! Do yourself a favour and send it to me. Even if I don't use them, I will give them a loving home and admire them regularly .


Mick

Hello Mick either you were lucky or I was extremely unlucky. I sent my G&F to Neil at Strop Shop U.K. the man knows his stuff and my razor was 3 weeks old and I had been taking very good care of it. He has now kindly re-honed it for me. Here is what he had to say about the razor, " it had a small ding/chip on the lower curved tip of the blade, and for some reason a bit of a 'hump' was developing near the heel, which was giving rise to a slight hollow that wasn't honed properly. In fact, the first half of the bevel had the (customary) single bevel, while the back half had a double-bevel - most unusual! However, I have corrected that and also reshaped the tip and tail a little to get over the chip and to even out the hump."

The razor now shaves fine; however all these problems happened during the manufacturing process.

Thanks for your offer I sent the razor to Neil at strop shop u.k. and he has sorted this out for me. Here is what he had to say about it. "it had a small ding/chip on the lower curved tip of the blade, and for some reason a bit of a 'hump' was developing near the heel, which was giving rise to a slight hollow that wasn't honed properly. In fact, the first half of the bevel had the (customary) single bevel, while the back half had a double-bevel - most unusual! However, I have corrected that and also reshaped the tip and tail a little to get over the chip and to even out the hump."

Thanks shooter I sent the razor to Neil at strop shop u.k. and he has sorted this out for me. Here is what he had to say about it. "it had a small ding/chip on the lower curved tip of the blade, and for some reason a bit of a 'hump' was developing near the heel, which was giving rise to a slight hollow that wasn't honed properly. In fact, the first half of the bevel had the (customary) single bevel, while the back half had a double-bevel - most unusual! However, I have corrected that and also reshaped the tip and tail a little to get over the chip and to even out the hump."

All these problems were part of the manufacturing process

Picking on the technical details, the steel they say they're using is a 1.2% carbon steel if I'm reading it right, and their hardness spec is somewhere between hard saw temper and razor temper.

That's probably about the same amount of carbon as the old crucible steel process razors had, but with a little bit of stuff in it to make it easier to harden and temper. It should be able to easily go to the hardness that old razors had.

56-57 is even marginal for a woodworking tool, and woodworking tools were traditionally softer than razors.

Newbie or smart?

I bought a Giesen & Forstoff #571 6/8 full hollow, natural horn scales. For what I reckon is a good price. I'm having a friend on SRP, a honer who does lovely work, and recommends the G&F. So I'll report in a few weeks on the results. At $100 if it's poor, I'm not going to be too bad off. This is Brand new. Why spend money on expensive scales etc if you are spending on shit razors? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Originally Posted by bobski

Newbie or smart?

I bought a Giesen & Forstoff #571 6/8 full hollow, natural horn scales. For what I reckon is a good price. I'm having a friend on SRP, a honer who does lovely work, and recommends the G&F. So I'll report in a few weeks on the results. At $100 if it's poor, I'm not going to be too bad off. This is Brand new. Why spend money on expensive scales etc if you are spending on shit razors? Correct me if I'm wrong.

What's been your result

Originally Posted by rickboone

What's been your result

The fellow forum member (Havachat 45) who told me they are tough to get an edge on, but are, once you have a bevel, can be good shavers. He was right. Many sessions led to it finally, 'popping' into shave readiness. It cuts fine when sharp. If you have the patience to carefully reach a nice bevel, then your there, a few light strokes from a 10 or 12k, will make it OK, as it is for me. Their quality control isn't the best, mine having a rust spot at the tang...easy to fix but not a great ad for the brand. My opinion is give it a go, but, it will take a few dozen attempts. Just curse it and walk away a few times, then that magical feeling will happen. So if you are ready to put in time, it can be achieved. Other members may just write it off, but at 90 bucks new, is tempting.
Good luck mate,

Bobski