Thread: My Mastro Livi razor, at last: a wonderful life experience!

Originally Posted by razorguy

it is what I call the "Umbrian razor". It was in fact made in Umbria - exactly in Perugia, my home city - and the scales are made of Umbrian olive wood personally gathered by Mastro Livi. Olive trees are one of the most characteristic signs of Umbrian landscape and, of course, their olives give a fantastic oil, fundamental for our local cuisine. So it is Umbrian in many regards.

Aside from the beautiful photographs, videos, and informative descriptions this thread continues to provide, every now and again a nugget of information useful to me personally appears. I tend to go for ivory, mammoth, horn or bone scales. Wood is generally not my first choice, so when a friend offered this beautiful French point Mastro Livi to me, at an attractive price, I bought it in spite of the olive wood scales. Not that they are not very beautiful, but my aforementioned prejudice for the more exotic materials led me to not appreciate them.

Now that I know the olive wood was not ordered from some supplier, but was gathered by Mastro Livi himself, from his own backyard so to speak, it becomes an even more special razor to me. Thanks for keeping this ongoing thread interesting and informative.

I am also a great admirer of materials such as ivory, mammoth bones or by the handles and in fact my first razors are all with handles of bone or mother of pearl, the wood attracted me less. Then I had the good fortune to be able to see the work of Mastro Livi when inlaying wood, the polished and shaped by, and I realized that wood is a living material. May arise from the same block veins and different designs. I've seen blocks of briar olive harvests were cut and polished as our grandparents did 100 years ago. Everything 'has fascinated me and now I have so many wooden handles made ​​from Mastro Livi. The handle of your razor has a particular shape that makes it even more 'unique. Congratulations and thanks to you for sharing our passion!

This thread is inspiring and puts a smile on my face every time I look in to see what is new and possible.

I now have this fantasy of a damascus carbon steel 7/8 or 8/8 fashioned precisely after an old Wade and Butcher FBU blade with a beautiful bone scale. Is something like this possible?

Originally Posted by GC7

This thread is inspiring and puts a smile on my face every time I look in to see what is new and possible.

I now have this fantasy of a damascus carbon steel 7/8 or 8/8 fashioned precisely after an old Wade and Butcher FBU blade with a beautiful bone scale. Is something like this possible?

The hands of Mastro Livi are able to accomplish anything. Steel, wood, bone, ivory, silver, coral, any material in his hands becomes a masterpiece. The ease 'with which it manages to work the materials is amazing for someone like me who has had the privilege of seeing with their own eyes.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Now that I know the olive wood was not ordered from some supplier, but was gathered by Mastro Livi himself, from his own backyard so to speak, it becomes an even more special razor to me. Thanks for keeping this ongoing thread interesting and informative.

First of all, congratulations on your new Mastro Livi razor! Just beautiful! I am sure you will enjoy it tremendously, including for the Damasteel quality in shaving.
Scales are quite fancy: this was in fact the style Mastro Livi mostly used in the past and now uses sparingly. The olive wood pattern is amazing. It is one of my favorites for wood scales. And, yes, I prefer wood to horn and bones.
As far as I can tell, Mastro Livi personally gathers the "local" wood he uses for making scales. He lives near the Tiber river banks and, not so far, there are woods all around. It is Umbria, after all, the green heart of Italy!

Originally Posted by GC7

This thread is inspiring and puts a smile on my face every time I look in to see what is new and possible.

I now have this fantasy of a damascus carbon steel 7/8 or 8/8 fashioned precisely after an old Wade and Butcher FBU blade with a beautiful bone scale. Is something like this possible?

Nothing is impossible for Mastro Livi when it is about razors as well as everything having an edge or to be used for cutting or shaving.
However, as far as I know, Mastro Livi does not like copy other's style, but I think he can easily make a razor similar for W&B FBU. As a matter of fact, FBU is on my top list of the most wanted razors for my collection: it is now many years I am trying to get one with no success at all.

I think if one was to say "I'd like a Mastro Livi razor inspired by a Wade & Butcher FBU", you'd probably wind up with one seriously beautiful razor. But you must be prepared to let the Mastro work his magic in his own way. If you are set on a precise W&B FBU replica, I would talk to Bruno, who is accustomed to collaborating closely with his customers about every detail and could replicate one better than new for you no sweat. But the mystique of a Mastro Livi razor, is in the magic that happens when his creative processes are allowed to reign freely.

I totally agree with you Mike!

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Aside from the beautiful photographs, videos, and informative descriptions this thread continues to provide, every now and again a nugget of information useful to me personally appears. I tend to go for ivory, mammoth, horn or bone scales. Wood is generally not my first choice, so when a friend offered this beautiful French point Mastro Livi to me, at an attractive price, I bought it in spite of the olive wood scales. Not that they are not very beautiful, but my aforementioned prejudice for the more exotic materials led me to not appreciate them.

Now that I know the olive wood was not ordered from some supplier, but was gathered by Mastro Livi himself, from his own backyard so to speak, it becomes an even more special razor to me. Thanks for keeping this ongoing thread interesting and informative.

That is a beautiful razor Jimmy! Congrats to you.

Originally Posted by Attila

That is a beautiful razor Jimmy! Congrats to you.

Thanks Attila. It is beautiful and it shaves as good as it looks. I took the photo to highlight the scales, but what really turns me on about this razor is the blade profile. It has a slight smile to the spine which is parallel with the slight smile to the edge. I think all razors are best made with that profile. Additionally, the white dots seen on the top of the spine in the earlier posted photo are pearl inlays. Here is a photo of the blade only that I took to demonstrate to a custom maker how I think an ideal blade profile should look ;