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

Originally Posted by Utopian

Could he make one for me with an American flag insert?

I am sure he can! I don't know how he can possibly make stars, but I am sure he can.

Beautiful, a real work of art. I have 2 Mastro Livi 6/8 with another in the works. He is a real artist. I love to watch his videos. The expression on his face the the tenderness of those tough hands. Each razor is indeed a part of the man.

Originally Posted by jkatzman

Beautiful, a real work of art. I have 2 Mastro Livi 6/8 with another in the works. He is a real artist. I love to watch his videos. The expression on his face the the tenderness of those tough hands. Each razor is indeed a part of the man.

I cannot agree with you more. By knowing Mastro Livi and having spent quite a lot of time with him, I can tell he truly feels his job in his heart and every razor he makes certainly is a part of him. He really puts a lot of passion in what he does and make.

Mastro Livi is at Cutler Expo 2015 in Novegro, Milan (Italy). This knife show takes place from 31 October to 1 November 2015. I am posting some pictures of Mastro Livi's booth at this exhibition where he is displaying some of his world famous straight razors, brushes, shaving bowls, loom strops, barber scissors, knives and other cutting tools. He is also offering - as usual - a free honing service to anyone is going to visit him at Cutler Expo.

Mastro Livi booth at Cutler Expo 2015 in Novegro, Milan (Italy)






Mastro Livi booth at Cutler Expo 2015 in Novegro, Milan (Italy) - Mastro Livi and his wife Mrs. Elena.

After having read the comments some gentlemen posted on Mastro Livi Club thread, in which they were complaining about their not so satisfactory attempts in honing a Mastro Livi RWL34 straight razor, I promised I would have honed myself a razor made of that stainless steel in order to understand. I have to say I honed my very first straight razor about sixteen years ago, so I cannot be compared - not even a tiny bit - to Mastro Livi who has a remarkable and daily experience in razor honing, something being now sixty years long.
I however wanted to try it myself and see how was it like to hone a Mastro Livi straight razor. As a matter of fact, I have never honed a Mastro Livi razor: I own twenty of them and, so far, I never needed to hone or refresh their edge, not even the first one I bought about two years and a half ago. I bought my very first Mastro Livi RWL34 straight razor two years ago and it still shaves like the first day.
I had to choose a RWL34 razor for this "sacrifice" and I opted for the last one I bought from Mastro Livi, that is on January 2015. I did not choose the first RWL34 I bought because I want to see how long it can hold its edge.
After having decided the razor to be sacrificed, I made its edge dull by heavily passing it on a glass: I admit it was like killing myself but, you know, I was determined in trying this myself. At the end I got the dullest edge I have ever seen and it was not capable of shaving, not even cutting my arm hair, not to mention a hanging hair.
The typical Mastro Livi set up for honing a blade is a Kai 3000 hone, Belgian coticule, his loom strop, his chromium oxide paste and hand palm. As I do not have a Kai 3000 hone, I wanted to try a different set up and I also intentionally left out the Belgian coticule in order to try a completely different set up, saved loom strop, chromium oxide and hand palm.

Here it is my honing set up:

1. Naniwa 3000/8000 hone
2. Guang Xi stone, also known as the Chinese stone
3. Mastro Livi small loom strop
4. Mastro Livi chromium oxide stick
5. My hand palm

This is what I did. I passed the razor on Naniwa 3000 side until I could get a cutting edge again capable of passing the arm hair test. As a matter of fact, it did not take that much, I believe eight-ten minutes or so. After that, I started polishing and refining the edge on Naniwa 8000 side, making sure the edge was still capable of cutting my arm hair.
I therefore passed the razor on my beloved Guang Xi Stone (it is one of my favorite finishers since the day I started honing razors) and made sure the edge was still capable of passing the arm hair test.
After that I passed the edge on Mastro Livi loom strop, linen side, in which I applied a fresh layer of his chromium oxide paste. I therefore stropped on leather side and then my hand palm.
The straight razor seems to have a good edge, passing arm hair test, thumb test and hanging hair test. I still need to do the final and most important test of them all - shaving - in order to see how good my honing was.
This RWL34 is the razor I am going to use for today's shave and I will post my comments about it later. So far, so good!

Mastro Livi RWL34, 8/8 Full Hollow, Snake Point
This is the straight razor I chose for my honing test





As you can see, Mastro Livi wrote RWL34 in the tang





My honing set up used for this test:
Naniwa 3000/8000 hone, Guang Xi Stone (Chinese Stone), Mastro Livi small loom strop, Mastro Livi chromium oxide stick, my hand palm

Can you tell what it is? I underlined in red.

Originally Posted by Gipson

Can you tell what it is? I underlined in red.

It is one of the wheel grinders Mastro Livi uses for the making of his straight razors. He took it with him at the Cutler Expo in order to offer a free honing / regrinding service to his clients and to those who are going to visit him at his booth.

Originally Posted by razorguy

It is one of the wheel grinders Mastro Livi uses for the making of his straight razors. He took it with him at the Cutler Expo in order to offer a free honing / regrinding service to his clients and to those who are going to visit him at his booth.

It would be interesting to look at close range.

Originally Posted by Gipson

It would be interesting to look at close range.

You can take a look at it in one of the many videos I made in which Mastro Livi shows the making of a razor.

Originally Posted by razorguy

You can take a look at it in one of the many videos I made in which Mastro Livi shows the making of a razor.

Thanks, I'll see again the video, I must have missed it.