Thread: NOS(?) Le Grelot 6/8

Thanks Seraphim. To clarify, it has both a smile, and a warped blade. The smile is a big plus to me personally, I look for it in razors I buy. The warp, not so much. Looking down the spine, the razor curves to the left. The spine won't lay flat on a hone, it's bowed.

I had a surprisingly hard time honing it. I didn't think the warp would be a big deal, because I was already having to use a rolling X stroke due to the smile. After hours of trying, the rear half of the razor was very keen, but the front half was not. Not wanting to create more wear, I broke down and taped the spine, re-beveled it on a DMT 8K with some pressure. About 30 strokes on the DMT and it was golden, I moved on to the coticule with water and no slurry, and it was impressively sharp in no time, less than 50 strokes. I don't understand why one layer of tape helped so much, but I'm glad it did.

All that said, I shaved with it this morning, and got the best shave I've ever had with a straight, without irritation. The Le Grelot is the most hollow-ground razor I've ever used (...successfully). I've only been at this for 5 months, and started out gravitating toward wider, more wedge-grind razors because my initial experiences with really hollow 5/8ths razors gave me bad irritation due to my limited skills. I think the great results this morning are not so much that the Le Grelot is some magic razor itself, but that I have at this point finally gained the minimum level of skill to not rip myself up with a true hollow ground. That shave made my whole day, yep.

Are the Le Grelot 6/8ths offered today by Martin at RasurPur a similar full hollow grind? If so, I'd be inclined to pick up one of them in the future as a backup. Are there other wide (6/8ths - 7/8ths) full-hollow razors that I have been overlooking that are recommended? Now I get why full hollows are so popular.

Buy it here for cheaper.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Buy it here for cheaper.

+1. $87 plus (very reasonable) shipping is hard to beat. I'd definitely recommend it over any similarly priced Dovo for anyone looking for a starter.