In the 6 months that I have shaving with straight razors, I have had a chance to try a wide variety of blades: from 3/8 to 15/16 and full hollow, 1/2 hollow, 1/4 hollow, wedges, etc.

One area that I had not been exposed to was framebacks. I recently got a good deal on a rusty CV Heljestrand 6/8 Sandvik Bessemer Stål frameback. There was a little pitting/devils spit on the frame, but the blade had no pitting or chips. The scales had a few scratches, but were no cracked or warped. The frameback cleaned up pretty well, and it honed up to sharp edge that was treetopping arm hair. I did notice that it took extra strokes on the 1000 Norton to set the bevel, but from there, all was well.

So this evening, it was time to get a first shave with the frameback. I lathered up with Mama Bear Pearberry with a Semogue 2000 boar brush. Upon starting my WTG pass, I immediately noticed how light the frameback felt compared to your typical 6/8 razor. But at the same time, the fixed blade had the firmness of shaving with a much heavier wedge. The WTG pass was great; it was easy to plow through whiskers with a light touch. The frameback went through the tougher areas such as the tip of the chin, the moustache area, and the neck rather well. There were no nicks.

The ATG pass was different, however. I am used to using nothing more than the weight of the blade/scales to move the razor in an upward motion. Still, there is a little initial movement that I usually need to do to get the blade in motion and go upwards (since you are not using gravity, as in the case of WTG). Here, since the razor was so light, it moved faster than I was used to and skated over some areas. It worked pretty well for all areas excepted the mustache area where I found it slid moved a little faster than excepted and cut off the tops of some little bumps, causing minor nicks.

So in short, the frameback gave a stellar first WTG shave, and presented a few challenges with ATG. I think the second shave would go better ATG as I would anticipate the razor taking less force/inertia to move. Overall, I am intrigued.

For you veterans out there, how do you rate framebacks relative to your other razors? Do some of you have framebacks in your regular rotation, or do you use the frameback more as an occasional curiosity? Also, are there are any specific framebacks that are highly rated or coveted? I am interested in hearing your thoughts.