Hate it when such things happen…
Portland Razor Co. No Longer Producing Straight Razors
- Thread starter Acmemfg
- Start date
<signh>. But I imagine this is NOT a growing sales product category unless one is able to create/rebrand a category (ie, straight razors ease so on). Hmmm
That's too bad. I think they already backed off quite a bit and it's basically just been a side hustle for a while now though. Always liked the company and wanted to try one of their own made razors.
Steve56
Ask me about shaving naked!
I don’t understand the part in parentheses, but to a long time user (I started at 17 and am now over 65, though I did not use SR in my working days) the issue is that modern makers can’t grind a razor as good as the vintage ones, for the most part.
If you’re in to quarter hollows, half hollows, you’re good with modern makers, but if you want a true Filarmonica Especial full hollow grind, lots of luck finding that in a modern razor. Maybe Victor @bluesman 7 or Koraat can do it, but not many others. I do not have one of Victor’s razors but he has a rep for thin hollow grinds.
The problem is that in the ‘olden days’, a young man could apprentice as a razor grinder/maker and work through to retirement with a pension in Germany, England, Sweden, or France. Now they grind until a better gig comes along, so razor grinders never accumulate the long time experience that it takes to make a truly finely ground razor. Vintage vs modern Thiers-Issard grinds are a good example.
I’m unsure if SR use is growing or not, but no argument that the segment is not large. But good razor prices are high and continue to grow, indicating increasing demand. SR shaving has its issues with the general shaving base, namely the three learning curves, shaving, stropping, and honing, and the time to do all that maintenance. That time and maintenance is why I rarely used a SR in my working years, if you’re 20 years old and 20 minutes late, a SR is not the tool of choice.
But once you pay the admission price of a razor, maintenance hone, and strop, you can shave for the rest of your life for the price of soap and aftershave. It is a very ‘green’ way to shave - forever.
I suspect that SR fell out of favor primarily because the average user could not or would not maintain the edge as sharp/comfortable as a DE blade. But DE shavers have their own vocabulary of wounds (weepers, razor rash, razor burn, ‘resting’ your face for a day or two) that don’t exist in properly honed SR world. You won’t hear experienced SR users mentioning any of these wounds.
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