Master Cutlery yay or nay?

[captianirish]

my friend is looking into getting into str8's and he went and got a master cutlery str8. he paid $40 for it. was wondering if these are any good for beginners/ if it will even be able to be honed enough to shave. i dont know how to hone from a non pre-honed blade. opinions please

 

[michiganlover]

I could be wrong, but this razor seems to be on Straight Razor Place's "Brands of Razors to Avoid":

http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Brands_of_Straight_Razors_to_avoid

 

[Slash McCoy]

If the blade is etched with "Master USA" it is probably a cheap blade and unlikely to ever take a decent edge. These are made n China but are several levels of quality below the "Gool Dollar" razors. You can try it, but you probably won't do anything but waste a lot of your time. The examples I have seen were tremendously thick at the edge and were factory sharpened with a pocketknife type bevel. Also the stabilizers interfered with honing, and the spines were irregular. All in all, that makes for an easy couple of hours of honing just to get a bevel set. These razors often go for a buck or two plus the shipping on ebay.

I think there is another "Master" brand, though, and I am not familiar with it but I know it is confused with the "Master USA" brand.

If you look in the "Buy Sell Trade" forum you will find guys here selling shave-ready razors. You could go with a new Gold Dollar or with a hard-used but shave-ready restored vintage blade for a few bucks less than your friend paid. Ditto ebay.

 

[captianirish]

cool thnx. i already have a nice dovo, but he wanted to get into it and bought the Master Cutlery without asking anyone... ah well ya live ya learn. thanx guys