Thread: A lady's straight razor...lets design it!

Ladies,
I have been thinking quite a bit on making a few more razors and instead of me "thinking" of what would work, you ladies could help me to get it right. I want to design a razor for women, to be used by women. I have several smaller razors like The Mab (pic below) and such that I would think would be pretty close, but am unsure.



Cutting edge is 2 1/8"
Width is 4/8
OAL of the whole blade is just shy of 4 3/4"

Here is where I need your ladies input. I know the underarms may not be too bad to shave, but the nether regions are another story. My wife keeps things smooth down south and mentioned that she would consider using a straight if it was the right size. A traditional straight in my mind would be a bit unmanageable to maneuver. Another thing that I wonder about is if scales would help or hinder. What size of cutting edge? What OAL would you recommend? All in all, what would your dream razor be? I will make it out of carbon steel (1095 or 0-1), but from there it's up to you.
Sincerely,
Scott

check out this thread if you have never seen it....

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...hie-razor.html

I gave up at page 5 of nothing but guys rambling & somewhat rude banter in that thread...

I am looking to hear from the ladies and their opinions on design. If there is no interest, I'll drop the idea.

If this thread starts in the direction of that one, I'll see that it is deleted.

......................

Originally Posted by shooter74743

If this thread starts in the direction of that one, I'll see that it is deleted.

I'll check in with the Mrs. tomorrow. I normally do the shaving for her there, but she uses my Shavette for her legs. Good luck with the thread, you might get a better response by sending a PM or two just to garnish a better response. Thanks for keeping it gentlemanly

I'm just a guy, so what do I know, but I would think that women, just like men, would have varied preferences when it comes to their razors.

Good Morning Gents and Ladies!

I don't check my email as often as I used to, so I'm not sure if there continues to be any interest in this particular subject or not. However I was certainly pleased to be asked for my opinion. Since that doesn't happen very often..... I'm not gonna pass up a good opportunity to throw in my 2 cents worth.

I personally use a 1964 Gillette Blue Double edge razor that was purchased for me as gift from Josh here on SRP, who was simply beside himself knowing that the "Soapmistress" was shaving with a Dollar General disposable razor

I must admit that I truly love my DE and would never consider going back to a disposable
. I also love my straight razor collection, but have only attempted to shave my legs a few times with one. I just feel like I have more control with the DE ( not to mention I'm always in a hurry ....sigh )

However there certainly are ladies here who shave with straights. I fear that Silver is the only one I have contact with now and then and I know for a fact that she loves hers.

As far as practical design is concerned, I really do like the idea of a shorter blade. Seems like it would be easier to manuver over the slopes and valleys of a woman's figure.

Soapmistress

i'm not a lady, however it's an interesting question from a requirments perspective, and being and engineer, its got me thinking.. I hope you don't mind?

Perhaps and exaggerated half smile with a very round point? me reason for this would be that the round point would better help protect against nicks on the sometimes very uneven surfaces involved, and also the exaggerated half smile (think of literally a smile cut in half, wide at the toe and sweeping right back to narrow at the heel) would allow for a more easily obtainable "variable width" shaving edge (you can use as little or as much of an arc of the edge radius as is appropriate to the width or size of the flattened plane to be shaved). may be a little more complex to hone though

Really hope this is ok involving myself. that's all i have and i shall now step back and watch with interest

cheers

Simon

I cant speak for ladies but I've shave my legs and arms with my straight recently and found that having the bigger edge comparetively to a normal DE or Cartridge razor made short work of a tedious task. I was pleasently surprised to find how much quicker it was to get the whole job done, though it did require significantly more concentration. I found that it was easiest to start at my upper thigh and work my way down rather then the typical feet to thigh that would typically be done with my DE or the old mach5 (shudders). I did find it quite a bit easier too then shaving my face as there is less angles and small curves to deal with. I for one dont see any changes to the length of the blade or scales that would really facilitate making the job any easier for legs or arms. Underarms and "the bump" may call for something different though, im not venturing that deep into femanine territory though. I would imagine something "prettier" could be done with scales and maybe some more femanine colors. Just my 2 cents!

I'm back from vacation (Padre (PINS) is still as wonderful as I remember. Twice a year isn't enough to make it down there.

Now that I am back, I've gotten a lot of feedback via PM & plan on grinding on it soon. Main thing that I am after is something that works & works very well, then we can dress it up once the design is right.

I truly appreciate all of the input received, now i hope that I can put the ideas into a form. I got in my drive wheel for my grinder & need to finish it up. It's just down to the fine tuning now, then I get to put it to work!