Razor Brands To Avoid

this list just proves the old adage, " a bad workman always blames his tools"

Eh? What are you on about. This list proves that guys who know more about straights than the rest of us will ever forget in a lifetime are trying to do you a favour and prevent you wasting your cash on crap. A more appropriate old adage 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear'.
 
This list has been compiled in response to the ever-growing number of con-artists and scammers, mostly from the East, that are currently infesting the market place with what they describe as 'straight razors' but which are either incapable of taking a good edge, made of poor quality steel, are poorly made and assembled and which do not shave well if at all - usually due to a combination of all these things. They are usually to be had for £30 or less, although brand new. Be aware that you need to pay at least double for a new entry-level razor by a reputable maker (and even then some of these have very lax quality control which leave them with defects like warps, poor grinding, etc that render them sometimes unusable).

It is high time we, as consumers, fought back. These are not old, vintage or collectable items - they are brand new and they are intended to shave with. Clearly in most cases they cannot, and this must be some sort of infringement of the Trades Descriptions Act. In short, they are not suitable for their stated purpose. These people need stamping out - if you are unlucky enough to have been hood-winked by one of these re-sellers, then report them - eg to Ebay, to Amazon, to your local council Trading Standards Officer.

This list has not been compiled lightly - the brands listed have been seen first hand and evaluated, both in this country and in America, where there is a similar 'Razor Brands To Avoid' list on several shaving forums.

The list of Brands to Avoid:

Artamis
Beauty & Barber
"Best Brand" (£5.59! Distributed by D.A.CH.S Deutschland)
G. B. Buckingham & Sons (include Damascus Steel razors in their line-up - they are not damascus, they just have an applied pattern)
Burbig
Enzo
Enzo England
Gold Arrow
Gold Dollar (can sometimes be OK after a lot of remedial work, but best avoided if you don't want to buy five to get one half decent razor)
Golden Barber (Hawk, Sovereign and Enzo make these)
Golden Salon (Enzo)
Hawk
Haryali (several lines, have an 'H' on the scales)
Hen & Rooster
Imperial
Edwin Jagger (very high rejection rate, some are OK)
Jico
Kedake
Kriegar
Master
Master Barbers
Master USA (the last three are all made by Master USA - in China. Poorly made, and described as a 'folding straight razor knife' they can be had for as little as $7.95 on some US sites)
Menrock - poor steel, very utilitarian scales
Path-Finder
Razoor (usually in awful, chunky, one-piece wooden scales, vary in price between £40 and £70 - an expensive mistake)
Reproduction Freemason/Masonic razors (these are brand new, originate in the east, have plastic handles and cannot shave)
Cyril J Salter (very high rejection rate - some are OK)
Sanguine
Sanguine Scissors Ltd
Sovereign
Sovereign Razors
Sweeney Todd
Titanium (rainbow coloured blade)
Timor (only the new Timors, not the vintage ones - manufacturer is still the same: Giesen & Forsthoff. Some make decent shavers, but there is a high rejection rate).
Traditional Barbers Straight Razor (from Sanguine Scissors Ltd and others)
Venus
Zeepk

Anything with no makers mark on tang or blade.
Anything with a multi-coloured, rainbow hued blade.
Anything made from Damascus (pattern-welded) steel that has not been made by a known, reputable maker (examples of good makers are Zowada, Livi, Buddel, etc).
Anything called a 'Razor Knife' or 'Razor Shave Knife' or 'Shaving Knife.'
Anything from Pakistan or China.
Razors with compound wood/stainless steel handles, usually marked 'China' on back of tang.
Anything described as 'German Style' or 'German Made' without the 'Solingen' stamp on the tang, but see below.
Anything brand new marked as 'buy one get one free' that is under £30.
In fact, any brand new so-called razor that costs under £30.

Notes
'Solingen' stamped on the tang of a razor is usually a sign of good quality - BUT - unscrupulous makers sometimes send their inferior goods from countries like China to Germany, to be assembled in Solingen. This is a legal-loophole. Usually the 'Solingen' mark is not stamped but very poorly etched or laser-etched. If in doubt - avoid.

Most of the high-volume sellers listed above lurk on auction sites like Ebay, but there is a trend for them to appear on other market sites like Amazon.

Most of the high volume sellers listed above bundle their useless razors with useless strops, strop dressings, shaving brushes and bowls, etc - all at a remarkably low price.

Keep in the mind the old adage - 'if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is!' (ie - its worthless).

Regards,
Neil


Thanks,I swear by my Meule, I have a Jagger and it shaves fine so surprised to see they have a high rejection rate. I must have been lucky. It certainly saves from buying rubbish. Side issue are there any bad kamisori's to avoid? ( next on my wish list, a good one that is!).

Regards

Mark
 
Hate to use one of my first post to slag, but that experience would possibly have ended my foray into straight razors very early!

I started with an eBay 'shave ready' sheffield razor, and I found it pretty hard going -- a combination of poor technic, and strong beard. Also, I thought that I needed more than one day growth to get a good shave. Long story short, that razor is just fine now with experience!

Anyway, at that point after my first shave, I told myself I needed some sort of 'reference' razor. So off I went online to a very well known distributor, and bought a Dovo Master's "shave ready" razor.

Turns out, shave was even worse. At that point, I was half tempted to just give up. Luckily, I soldiered on, got some other razors to try, got some stones to hone, and started to build a better technic and enjoy my shaves...

*apart* from that Master's -- it was always poor. Tried at least 2 times to redo the edge, and it was always poor. At that point I had discovered DrMatt's youtube channel, and did the 'rocking test' on a piece of stone, and discovered that that brand new Dovo had extremely poor geometry.

Armed with a lot more experience honing etc, I ended up using a small sharpening stone to make a bevel on one side to equalise the spine (it had 1/2mm difference in thickness between front and back, and both side were 'frowning'!) and re-flatten both side of the spine, and after that, it took a 'proper' edge and was saved...

But, the conclusion is, I wouldn't recommend a new Dovo, especially as a first razor! If it *had* been my first razor, I would very likely would have tossed the whole thing in a drawer and go back to my DE shaving...
 
For sure you definitely need to start straight razor shaving with a razor from a trusted source as you have no way of knowing how much of the learning curve is down to technique or kit. Everyone sells razors as "shave ready" but they rarely are, in the wild, even from factory or authorised reseller. There are people on here I've bought from, or taken recommendations from, who I trust when they say shave ready. Luckily I bought my first straight from a recommended supplier and could then categorically take all blame for bad shaves on my own state of learning at the time.
 
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