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

This time I am traveling with two Mastro Livi straight razor: Grifetto and this Damasteel Ladder. They are both magnificent shavers, I love Grifetto but I admit the pattern of this Damasteel ladder is absolutely fascinating. As for the shave, it shaves absolutely great and I love the feedback Damasteel provides in shaving: it is more aggressive than Grifetto while providing the very same smooth and deep shave. After all, it is a Mastro Livi...

Can I show you my new razor made by Mastro Livi? It 'a mini razor damask steel nickel colored blue. Has the fossil mammoth ivory handle and inlays are made of red coral. Needless to say, the skin is a velvet glove. This razor my 16 year old son will start 'to learn how you must shave !!

Simply stunning, simply breathtaking, simply perfect! Just another magnificence rasor you add to your collection! (and to our Club? )

Originally Posted by razorguy

Simply stunning, simply breathtaking, simply perfect! Just another magnificence rasor you add to your collection! (and to our Club? )

Thank you very much!!

Razorguy, how much time do you spend on the loom strop before each shave with your Mastro Livi razor? Since your first purchase, have you ever had to use the CroMx side of the strop? If so, how much time do you spend on the CroMx side before going to unpasted side of the strop? I am just trying to get a feel of what your typical stropping routine is like. I appreciate your help on this. Thank you.

To me, counting laps and time spent on hones and strops really makes no sense. I never believed there would be magic numbers in order to get a good edge. In my opinion, it all depends on the edge condition and that means you need to assess the edge condition before thinking about whether you should use a hone or CrOx.
The only advice I could give is "enough is enough", that means you need to feel the edge and stop stropping as soon as you get a good edge. This means it could take 20 or 100 laps, as well as 1 or 10 minutes. I never count. Enough is enough.
As for CrOx use, so far I never had the need to pass any of my Mastro Livi razors on the linen side of his loom strop (I bought my very first Mastro Livi razor about one year and a half ago) although I use that when I restore vintage razors. However, you should use the linen side fully covered with CrOx as soon as your razor starts pulling or tugging. It is not meant to be used every time you shave and you should not use that like so.
What you should use every time you shave is the leather side and this is very important. As for my typical stropping routine, I strop the straight razor on leather side of Mastro Livi loom strop before doing the first pass and then I use my hand palm which is a magnificent and very effective strop. I also strop the razor on my hand palm before the second and third pass.
When I am done, I clean and wipe dry my razor and then strop it on hand palm. After that, I let it completely dry before putting it back in its box.
I understand this may be disappointing to you because you probably expected me to tell a number or a specific amount of time, but this is not what I do when I shave. I can however tell you what I usually read or hear about stropping: it seems most of wet shavers suggest at least 30 laps on leather side before shaving. I guess this is a reasonable number and you may probably want to try it. However, in case you do more than 30 laps it, certainly does not hurt the razor, indeed it may also give you a more comfortable edge. As a matter of fact, the same cannot be applied to CrOx: 30 laps may be too much or simply not enough.
Like everything else in shaving, "your mileage may vary" and experience and time will tell you what your typical and best routine should be. For the moment, I can advice you to use the linen side with CrOx only in case your razors is pulling and by doing a number of laps enough for the edge to be sharp again. In case your edge is particularly dull, you need to use a hone instead.
As for stropping on leather side, you should do this every time you shave and let's say 30 laps is a reasonable number. In case you like so, you can also strop your razor between passes and, in this case, make sure to wipe dry the razor before stropping.

Yesterday I went to Mastro Livi workshop because I ordered a new straight razor and wanted to watch the making of it. I guess you gentlemen know Mastro Livi is continuously experimenting new techniques and ways for the making of his razors, shears and knives, in particular, he experiments quite a lot on Damascus steel by using different metals.
When I arrived there, I found this blade on a table and, besides the fact it is absolutely beautiful, what amazed me is when Mastro Livi told me about this San Mai Damascus he made. Here it is the blade:

This San Mai Damascus steel is made from stainless steel and it was personally made and forged by Mastro Livi in his workshop! Just incredible!
The sides of this Damascus - the shiny ones - are made from stainless steel, whereas the middle layer is made from Mastro Livi carbon Damascus steel. In other words, he has been successful in making a San Mai Damascus steel by assembling carbon steel and stainless steel together!
What you see in the above picture is the very first straight razor blade made with this new Damascus and the Damascus billet you see in the picture is also made from carbon steel and stainless steel. In this case, the middle layer is made from stainless steel and the external layers are made from carbon Damascus steel.
I saw many billets made with this new technique, result of the many experiments Mastro Livi did in order to join carbon steel and stainless steel together. I have also seen Damascus billets made with stainless steel only, by joining two or more different stainless steels and with different patterns. Simply stunning!
He said he is going to experiment even more in the next days and he will start making straight razors with this new Damascus.
I think this is amazing: so far Mastro Livi made carbon Damascus steel only, now he is also making stainless steel Damascus and soon he will be making straight razor with it. I guess I will order a new razor soon...

Ladies and gentlemen, here it is the making of my new Mastro Livi straight razor. As I am very fond of the stainless steel used for the making of Grifetto - the steel it used to be "experimental" in the past months and of which I have been the very first one to test a razor made from this steel - I wanted to order a totally artisan straight razor made from this magnificent steel. After having tested it for the first time, this is something I really wished to add to my collection. It is a 9/8, therefore bigger than "Grifetto" and, as it was made from the very same stainless steel, Mastro Livi wanted to call this "Grifone", Italian for "big gryphon". That pleased me very much and now I am the very happy owner of Grifetto and Grifone: being a proud citizen of Perugia, it is absolutely great to have two razors named after the symbol of my beloved city. This razor is however different from Grifetto both in size and shape, but it is however made from the very same and very good stainless steel. I cannot wait to shave with it, I guess this is going to be Sunday and, by the way, this is the razor I will bring with me on my next travel.
Mastro Livi started working on this razor yesterday morning and, unfortunately, I could not be there at that moment. I could only go there in the afternoon, so I totally missed the cut, forging, tempering and initial grinding of the blade. I hope you will enjoy them anyway.

This is what I saw when I arrived at Mastro Livi workshop. The blade already received three grindings and it only needed the fourth one in order to become "full hollow".



Finishing the making of thumb place



Fourth and final grinding

Initial polishing of the blade



End of initial polishing



Polishing the tang



Mirror polishing the blade

Mirror polishing the blade



Mirror polishing the blade



Decoration of thumb place



Bottom jimps