Thread: Art of Shaving Thiers Issard

Gentlemen-

My question is predicated on an "As I understand/remember it" position so please, in addition to hopefully answering my question, correct any errors in my presumptions.

Thiers Issard blades are unique because of the special tempering in molten lead deal they have going on. From what I understand, they also produce a number of razors that are not their blades, but blades that were bought from another company and re-ground to their standards/specifications.

My question is - to which category do the $135 Thiers Issard razors from The Art of Shaving belong? After a modest search of Thiers Issard razors sold elswhere, this is the best price of any TI I could find (by a significant margin, too). Anyone have any knowledge or experience with these?

Thanks a lot, Gags

Originally Posted by Joegags

Gentlemen-

My question is predicated on an "As I understand/remember it" position so please, in addition to hopefully answering my question, correct any errors in my presumptions.

Thiers Issard blades are unique because of the special tempering in molten lead deal they have going on. From what I understand, they also produce a number of razors that are not their blades, but blades that were bought from another company and re-ground to their standards/specifications.

My question is - to which category do the $135 Thiers Issard razors from The Art of Shaving belong? After a modest search of Thiers Issard razors sold elswhere, this is the best price of any TI I could find (by a significant margin, too). Anyone have any knowledge or experience with these?

Thanks a lot, Gags

I am by no means an AOS advocate but I have seen the AOS TI and it seems legit. They are nice and seem to keep nice edges.

Let me preface this with an "I believe," because I am going from memory which is a scary thing. Any who here we go: the art of shaving TI is same blade as the base level TI available from a few places. It is not one of the historical regrinds that TI often puts out, those are more expensive. I don't know conclusively if it is or isn't a molten lead bath blade but I believe it to be. I think this blade is one of the few old style ones they are still producing, most of the newer ones are in their c135 carbon steel which I do not believe is tempered in the molten lead, the older blades which were "Sheffield silver" steel were the ones that were tempered in the molten lead and I believe are still the blades used in their base model. Either way it is a nice razor I own one, not from AOS but again the same blade only difference is the etch, it was my first razor and once properly honed it is a great razor that I still use frequently. That is important, from what I understand AOS razors are NOT shave ready and if you buy one you will be best served to send it to Lynn or another experienced honing guru to put a proper edge on it.

I've never owned one of the AOS TI razors but I have quite a few of the old silver steel and a few of he newer C135s. All of them are real fine shavers IME.

Outfits who make generic straights for other outfits usually don't use their high end products for such purposes. I would expect the AOS branded TIs to be their basic pieces.

I've never heard of TI ever making anything but a great razor so I wouldn't be concerned about it. If you want one of their special pieces just buy what you want from their own catalog of pieces.

Well i recently got a AOS Thiers Issard, i got the one with the stainless steel scales,it is not a C135 witch is fine with me i heard they are a pain to hone. Anyway Like the Forum Mogwai said TI make a good product, this is not the top of the line but let me tell you its my go to razor for sure.There just something about a TI when you shave it sounds different, feels so easy, you cant go wrong with a Thiers Issard ...............

the AOS TI are very nice shavers, my only problem is the steel scales they really throw off the balance.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Well i recently got a AOS Thiers Issard, i got the one with the stainless steel scales,it is not a C135 witch is fine with me i heard they are a pain to hone. Anyway Like the Forum Mogwai said TI make a good product, this is not the top of the line but let me tell you its my go to razor for sure.There just something about a TI when you shave it sounds different, feels so easy, you cant go wrong with a Thiers Issard ...............

Well I think the one with stainless scales is a C135, never the less AOS has TI for a
good price, and they are vary nice razors, I have one, and for many people a new TI is one of their favorite razors.

I have an AOS T.I. Bocote. It's C135 and a fine shaver. I also picked up an AOS 6/8 Dovo SS for a song, unopened with the seal intact. The T.I. is stamped (TI) while the Dovo just says Solingen, Germany with no Dovo stamp (etching) but comes with a Dovo case. The Dovo is excellent shaver too. These were just deals I ran across, 1/2 price on each but the TI was used a couple of times.

joegags,

I have two (2) C135 TIs, and they are both superb shavers

The edge sometimes needs a little effort to dial it in, but once there, they are super shavers.

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ