Thread: Smoothest shaving razor

I'm a newb to straight shaving, but I've acquired a handful of razors now. I have all old razors besides the new Dovo best quality I bought to start out with. Out of the 11 I have honed and shaved with, nothing comes close to my C-Mon (Blackies Handmade, Ellicottville, Ny) I am getting all the old razors I can to see if any will come close to the C-Mon. I was just wondering what is your guys favorite smoothest razors? Do the customs shave superbly to factory? I was looking into trying one of the Mastro Levi's that everybody talks about. What's your best shaver????

There are just so many good ones , if they are honed and stropped well, that i would be reluctant to name one. I really like C.V. Heljestrand but there are too many 'good' razors to list.

I'm with Jimmy on this one.
When I started out honing, my favorite would change as my honing skills improved - it took me a while to grasp that it was my growing honing skills that determined my shave experience. As long as we're talking quality steel and I manage to put a good edge to it, I am happy with all my razors, no matter what origin, age, size or grind. Basically

With three days growth plus-8/8 Gilbert masonic wedge (1850's?)
With less than Threedays- 7/8 Original Schulze (19??)

everything else realy is good, just those two stand out.

+1 @ Jimmy I have about 30 razors (probably more) with about 10 in regular rotation. I have not gotten a bad shave from any of them. My Filis have spent a lot of time at the top of the list with my C-mons up there to. The biggest factor I think after overall blade quality is who and how your blades are honed. My smoothest shave to date is A vintage restore and hone by Gssixgun. The Shaves I have gotten as a result of his honing were so drastically different I sent him 3 more to do recently. Before you go and buy more razors (and Im all for that) send out 3 different ones to 3 different Honemiesters and compare the results .
As Lynn says ...Have Fun!

Dovo bismarck

Geneva Henrys X

I think the veterans will bear witness to this, that there exists a small select group of razors out there that for some (unknown?) reason they just are remarkable shavers. Maybe the entire fabrication process was perfect from start to finish and those razors cut across all brands and ages and styles and grinds. If you are fortunate to have some like that you will know it.

No matter how much you restore and hone a razor though it may look brand new and give fantastic shaves you can not hone a razor into this select group it's something innate to them.

They probably make up no more than 20% of all the straights ever produced maybe less. I know I have some.

So the answer to this post for me would be that class of razors.

How do I describe these razors?

If someone was giving you a shave and you were blindfolded and didn't know you were about to get a shave and you got terrible prep, still, the razor would glide down your face so perfectly you would never guess there was a razor touching your face based on the feel and the result would be perfect. yes, it's that good.

That's exactally what I was trying to say bigspendur. Maybe I got lucky honing it or got one of the ones you refer to as perfect, but it is so smooth that is feels like you were shaving with the rounded spine. It's just remarkable even on the rough chin hairs, I have to look and feel for wiskers because it glides so easy around my face.

it is so smooth that is feels like you were shaving with the rounded spine.

This is exactly how I described my shave with the C-mon Glen restored for me . I have never felt anything like it and I have had some remarkable shaves. In fact I thought I had had enough smooth shaves to think that I had experienced the best my blades could offer. I am now on a quest for the smoothest!
@ Bigspendur- care to share at least some of the members of that select group?