Thread: russian razors

i have been told by a friend that russian razors were made very good quality, he said that shaving was a luxury, and because of this, the razors were made very basic, but very good quality

can anyone confirm this?

First of all, some threads about Russian razors:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ian-razor.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ght-razor.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...straights.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...or-yzkaya.html
And not all Russians razors are good. How to spot? Only on practice.
But a lot of Russians razors are really nice shavers.

I would imagine the ones from prior to the cold war era would be the better ones. There was a point later on where they were making all kinds of cheap items for export. I'm thinking of the watches they sold cheaply in that era which were not very good. The watches I know, the razors I'm guessing though.

All Russian straight razors were made during cold war.
And Russian export gold watches were very good at that time.

I have one and can confrm its an amazing shaver

Originally Posted by manah

And Russian export gold watches were very good at that time.

As I write this I am wearing a Russian watch Vostok-Europe to be exact parts made in Russia, fabricated in Lithuania and can attest to their excellent build quality. There are many Vostok amphibia watches still around from the cold war period they are also still being manufactured, and have a reputation for being somewhat crudely manufactured but are considered the gold standard when it comes to surviving harsh treatment they were and still are sold for almost a tenth of the price of their Swiss counter parts. Sorry for the off topic rant

I've had several Russian razors. They were all quality razors. Anecdotally, their metal seemed quite hard, harder than a Solingen for example. This is not a positive or negative statement, but an observation. Because of the hardness, they seemed to take a little longer to achieve a sharp edge, but kept that edge very well.

The Russians were never known for their watchmaking skills. Most of the Vostoks and others are actually old Swiss mvmts designs they bought from the Swiss along with the old machining. The machining was crude and they upped the jewel count to try and improve the run-ability of the mvmts. I have a current production Vostok and it's a nice watch however it's ain't exactly a highly accurate watch. A typical Swiss or Seiko mvmt beats it by a mile. I have a Poljot naval deck clock and it's probably the highest grade timekeeper the Russians ever made. The top of the line chronos used on ships before GPS and Quartz were bought from the Swiss.

I have this fellow

Vostok 3 commemorative razor, which I got because I am a child of the space race era.

It shaves very well and honed up easily. The quality of the finish isn't that great and the plastic handles are cheap and nasty. If it didn't have historic value I'd send it off to get polished and rescaled in a shot.

It is also half hollow ground not a full hollow grind.

Anecdotally the commemorative razors made for export were much higher quality than the ones poor Ivan down the steelworks could afford.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I've had several Russian razors. They were all quality razors. Anecdotally, their metal seemed quite hard, harder than a Solingen for example. This is not a positive or negative statement, but an observation. Because of the hardness, they seemed to take a little longer to achieve a sharp edge, but kept that edge very well.

++1 to that. I have several of the Russian razors too. They are a PITA to hone correctly. Good edge retention once dialed in. Great shavers.
MIke