Thread: Irving Barber Co.'s shavette, better or just complicated?

I like that it takes multiple blades, but it seems like his fingers get real close to the edge of that blade when loading it.

Aesthetically, it seems to capture the look of a real straight rather nicely, but the huge thumbscrew bugs me.

Thoughts?

Looks nice. Easier loading then some shavettes

Hi Guys,

As I haven't found any info about the Irving Company Straight razor as they call it themselves I thought hey let's start a topic about it.

It's actually a shavette and not a straight razor but I posted it here as it leans more in the direction of a straight then a DE.

I contacted the owner and while the Company has a International button on the shop page, that doesn't work yet but should in a few weeks, although that might be a bit longer as it seems the first batch has sold out (it was only a small batch). Lucky me I got the owner to send me one via email contact but I had to settle for one without the box to keep shipping costs down. I have no personal connection with Ricky and paid for my razor.

I was surprised after unpacking the razor about the balance, looks and weight. One thing that I noticed immediately was that if you want to keep it shiny on a display you better be prepared to wipe it off thoroughly after each use, every fingerprint shows. There is mention of other colors and materials in the future so that could be a better choice for the regular user, I don't think a barber will mind about that so much and this razor was developed with barbers in mind in the first place.

Very nice curves to this shavette, if I hold it next to my Feather DX folding it show many similarity's in thickness and curves but certainly isn't a copy of it. It falls into my hands just like the DX and while I like the long tang of the Feather I didn't mind the rather short one on the IBC, I'm not even sure a longer one would be better or advisable. Same thing about jimps, difficult to say if it would improve the razor, didn't miss them but maybe they should make a model with jimps as I suspect the regular user might like them.

Certainly a plus is the fact that you can use either a half DE blade, a Feather/Kai/Dorco single blade and a injector blade! Out of the 3 possibility's the Feather/Kai/Dorco ones are my favorites (but I shave most often with those so no surprise there). You can watch the video to see how the razor is opened and the blades placed inside, first few times you have to keep your attention, not that it's difficult at all just a bit different then other shavettes.

There are little magnets that keep the blades in place and if you use a DE blade broken in half there are two little spaces where the two curved ends of the broken blade fit into so it doesn't interfere with closing up the razor.

The knob, first thing I thought I wouldn't like, surprise .... it doesn't get in the way during shaving at all, obviously they thought this out really well! I always change hands for the different halves of my face and head and no problems there either.

It's too early to give a real review, I might do so after a month of two of use. I've shaved for 40+ years now, mostly twice a day to keep the bamboo at bay with DE's, SE's, straights and shavettes and have tried a really long list of different ones but have kept only a small portion of them that I really like. This one might just make it into the short list.

But even 40+ years is nothing compared to what a barber does so I took the IBC to a Turkish barber in my city and let him work with it. Those guys are magicians with a shavette! Unbelievable to watch. He used it on several customers and liked it a lot, wanted to keep it but no luck there ;-)

Pictures or it didn't happen. Tc

Really nice review. I was curious about the button I'm glad to hear that it doesn't get in the way

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Pictures or it didn't happen. Tc

At your command:

Thanks for your insight snuff. Really an interesting product I like it's versatility of being able to take 3 different types of blades.. if I wasn't getting a feather ss I would be all over this..

A video of using it would be cool.

Ok your off the hook now ,, great pics of it. Tc. Now don't let it happen again! Lol

Thanks for the pictures and initial review, look forward to your thoughts once you've gotten a chance to use it more.

Yesterday evening and this morning another two very pleasurable shaves with the IBC.

The makers advice to only use DE blades for cutting the edges of one hair like in the neck but I can asure you that a complete head and face shave with a DE blade is very well possible.

A tip for those who might find the razor a bit to slippery (I don't have any problems with it): Just run your fingers over a alum block before picking it up and your good to go.

I did find one area where a improvement could be made: The pivot screw is very difficult to use, a normal screwdriver doesn't fit in there (too shallow), I had to use the back of a small kitchen knife to tighten it up.