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Koraat Opinions

Hello all:

I'm new here, so I'm interested in your opinions. I realise that my question could be one of those "kill the messenger" things....but I would appreciate if you can bear in mind, I'm just asking a question.

I recently ordered a Boker Feldmann, and was contacted by the owner of the online shop to discuss delivery. In discussion, I mentioned that I was interested in a Koraat razor down the line. The owner of the online shop was critical (saying knife makers aren't razor makers, pointing out what he said were design flaws in that brand). I realise that its in his interest to divert me from another vendor, but I felt the criticisms (really, I can't recall them all, wasn't in a position to take notes) were quite unfair. Basically, I was told that the grind of some of the Koraat blades makes them axes, as he said, and after a couple years use/honing, the material wears away to a thickness that can no longer be reasonably sharpened.

My own impression of the brand is that the maker of Koraat straights takes huge effort to create what appear to be beautiful and functional straight razors. If any of you have been using a Koraat for a while, could you please weigh in with your opinion or the benefit of your experience?

Many thanks,

Zach
 
I think you'll find they're pretty well regarded around here, although I can't speak from personal experience yet; I have one on order.

Does Koraat even make knives? I thought that was just the name.
 
Koraat razors are wonderful. Ulrik makes some with an intentional 20.5 degree bevel angle, including the one I have and I'm completely happy with it. He also makes many with a more conventionally acute angle. They are a custom piece so of course you can ask and I imagine he'll do whatever angle you want so long as it'll be likely to hold an edge.

While it is the case that, if you use tape, you will eventually make the angle too oblique to shave well, that takes a long time, perhaps decades but very dependent on use, honing technique, etc. At that point you can have the razor re-ground, it's not a lost cause, just in need of service.
 
I respect this site and understand there is a policy about linking so I will simply quote a post from Ulrik the maker of Koraat razors. In 2017, somewhere, he wrote:
Just wanted to give the information, that the high angle of about 19-21° is intentionally on our heavy 8/8" blades. They are inspired by the old sheffield blades which so many people love to use. But most of those old blades have very high sharpening angles which is a result of the long use and honewear. That´s partly the reason for the excellent edge holding and also the gentleness of those sheffield wedges. So we have decided to use higher than usual angles on our blades too. Up to now, we have made some thousands of razors and there have been only 3 customers that had "pulling" issues with these higher angles. In such a case we just regrind the blade to a lower angle and that resolves the problem.
But these high angles are only on our big 7/8" and 8/8" blades, the 6/8" and also our new #14 insprired 7/8" blades have the "normal" geometry.
 
My view is that the vendor making such remarks is either uninformed, or intentionally misleading you.

Koraat makes many different designs of blades, from the axes he refers to, to very thinly ground razors. All of them are of the highest quality.

He is maybe referring to some very poor quality advertisements on some sites that refer to razors as "shaving knives". I can assure you Koraat does not fall under these.

The guys on this forum are passionate about their razors, many own Koraat razors, and shave with them. I have yet to see a negative remark about the quality of Koraat.

I own 30+ razors and I will easily put Koraat right at the top in terms of grind, quality of material and finish.
 
I respect this site and understand there is a policy about linking so I will simply quote a post from Ulrik the maker of Koraat razors. In 2017, somewhere, he wrote:
Very interesting!

Thank you for posting that information.

When I saw your initial post about the 20.5 degree angle I didn't believe it, but now it makes sense. He uses such high angles on the heavy grinds and the normal angles on the thinner grinds.

Being a Gold Dollar tinker, I experimented with different bevel angles and I believe the most efficient and comfortable angle to be around 16.5 degrees, with 18 degrees tending to be the higher limit. I would not have believed that a 20.5 angle could be comfortable, but Ulrik knows better.
 
I tend to take the folks here, the end users, opinions a bit more serious than someone trying to sell his products.

Personally I stay away from any vendor that has a habit of bad mouthing another.
I’m the same. The convo was a bit uncomfortable, listening to chummy crapping on another mans work.
 
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My view is that the vendor making such remarks is either uninformed, or intentionally misleading you.

Koraat makes many different designs of blades, from the axes he refers to, to very thinly ground razors. All of them are of the highest quality.

He is maybe referring to some very poor quality advertisements on some sites that refer to razors as "shaving knives". I can assure you Koraat does not fall under these.

The guys on this forum are passionate about their razors, many own Koraat razors, and shave with them. I have yet to see a negative remark about the quality of Koraat.

I own 30+ razors and I will easily put Koraat right at the top in terms of grind, quality of material and finish.
Thank you for the info reply
 
I respect this site and understand there is a policy about linking so I will simply quote a post from Ulrik the maker of Koraat razors. In 2017, somewhere, he wrote:
This is awesome info! May I ask a few questions?

Does he hone those razors with the higher angle w/tape still?

Does he recommend you use tape to keep the original bevel angle while honing at home?

I'm curious if he is implying that those heavier ground sheffields are more comfortable only after tons of honing through the years and not at the point of manufacture a couple hundred years ago?
 
I have one Koraat among 50+ razors, one of my few razors purchased new. Per above it is a 14.2 and has a “normal“ bevel angle of 16 degrees. Very well made and absolutely one of my favorite razors. Not the cheapest razor out there, but I feel it was well worth the price.

I totally understand that many manufacturers hone with tape in order to maintain the pristine condition of the new razor. That includes Ulrik. I usually hone without tape, as I don’t really care about the hone wear.
 
I have one Koraat among 50+ razors, one of my few razors purchased new. Per above it is a 14.2 and has a “normal“ bevel angle of 16 degrees. Very well made and absolutely one of my favorite razors. Not the cheapest razor out there, but I feel it was well worth the price.

I totally understand that many manufacturers hone with tape in order to maintain the pristine condition of the new razor. That includes Ulrik. I usually hone without tape, as I don’t really care about the hone wear.
Ulrik is also happy to hone your razor without tape. You just have to ask. I asked for my Koraat razor to be honed without tape to save me from resetting the bevel. It was no problem.
 
Well to be frank that person/vendor should know better than slate another makers work, and to state there are flaws is total rubbish Ulrik is a top-class maker that would never send you a razor that had flaws in it.

I will go as far as to say Ulrik knows more about razors than the vendor, I had a custom made razor from Koraat and I am very happy with it and it will be passed on to my son and I hope he passes it on to his son and so forth.

This was the one I had made and Ulrik did an outstanding job


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There are unwritten rules as how to behave when interacting with customers regardless if you're selling goods or services. Among those rules is to never ever talk bad about your competitors. As my paternal grandmother taught me: If you don't have anything good to say about someone it's better to keep silent. Personally I have found that a silent, or very neutral response, is fully understandable by most clients and even make them respect you for your integrity. I have of course attended meetings where people have talked bad about their competition and it never fails to lower the appreciation of the speaker and his offer.

So what the seller did was to talk badly about Koraat (me knowingly not a knife maker) he doesn't seem to know anything about and thus making you (and the respondents to this thread) questioning his business and not Koraat.

Just for the record: I do appreciate the two Koraat razors I've got.
 
I think you'll find they're pretty well regarded around here, although I can't speak from personal experience yet; I have one on order.

Does Koraat even make knives? I thought that was just the name.
Here is a post from Ulrick in 2019. He started making knives and switched to razors. I personally find my two Koraats amongst the best in quality. The grinds are excellent and the fit and finish top notch.

From another forum:

Koraat-Knives is a small family company. Near the Wachau in lower Austria, at the Nibelungengau, we have our shop at the ground floor of our house. That´s where we produce our 100% handmade straight razors with the highest possible quality.
Beside my wife, Christine Weinberger, and me, Ulrik Beyer, we only have our two dogs to assist us. We have no employees. That´s why you as a customer, can rely on the fact that we stand up to 100% for any of our razors and that all razors go through our own hands.
Because our production quantities are rather small you can be sure to buy a very individual razor and no mass product.
I have a formation as goldsmith, but was always attracted by knifemaking. That´s why I have started my business as knifemaker in 2009. Soon I have realized that my passion are the finest and sharpest edges and I have specialized on highend custom kitchen knives. The next logical step was straight razor making and since 2013 I have stopped the production of all other cutlerys and am purely making straight razors.
Since 2015 my wife is working with me on our razors.
 
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