I know they have the moniker "cutthroat" but I think you'd have to be going some to actually cut your throat with one..!

You'd need to make a slicing motion with the blade at 90 degrees to the skin and apply a fair amount of pressure too. And I would imagine the severe pain would put you off before you actually cut deep enough to get an artery.

That said, cut-throat is the old English term for these razors. My grandfather (who was from Edinburgh) had one and used to refer to it as a cut-throat.

I tend to call them straight razors, but I guess thats mostly due to how they are referred to on SRP.

Whenever I've mentioned to someone that I shave with a straight razor I get a quizzical look until I mention Sweeney Todd and then they're like "Oh... Why?" and so the conversation ensues!