Description
Handmade in France
The new “125” Thiers-Issard ‘Le Transatlantique’ is a reboot of an old trademark they’ve held. TI’s founder Pierre Thiers had a sister, Jane Thiers, who was quite invested in her brother’s business and loved travel by sea. In 1914, TI created the ‘Le Transatlantique’ brand, complete with an engraving “Jane” on the back of the tang. Beyond this new/old nomenclature, this is a 7/8″ TI blade with ‘composite moon’ scales, round head, and the “275” denotation for satin-matte surfaces on each side of the blade (“275” = both sides matte, “889” = one side brightly polished, “188” = both sides brightly polished). The little moon thingies move around from piece to piece, so we show the stock individually, and the piece you pick is the precise piece you’ll receive!
File jimps – those little ridges provided for an enhanced grip – are present here upon the underside of the tang. This razor’s got a “thumb notch” style tang which is also “shoulderless” (= no secondary ridge at far right of cutting edge span), and in this version comes in at an approximate weight of sixty-seven grams. It also has the Grelot style engraving work added upon its spine. The scale’s wedge – and it *is* a wedge, it is *not* a spacer, bust out your caliper when you receive it – is transparent acrylic.
“Shave Ready”?
This business is wholly centered upon the sale of one hollow ground straight razor to one shaver one at a time; “1 str8rzr alone” is ~50% of all our orders. You may elect to have your TI with its factory edge (which we think is exceptional, but that’s just one subjective opinion, and opinions vary) or further honed by ‘TSS’, as only you see fit; there is not a right or wrong answer. ‘TSS’ rather doubts the worth of debating this ‘Shave Ready’ concept today; anyone can bandy that term about as if objective, meaningful information (like a sprinter’s time), but in fact it is completely subjective.
If you elect for the factory edge [= just pick your ‘specimen’ from the police lineup shots via the drop-down menu here, no need to add any note], you’ll receive your razor exactly as its manufacturers intended…pretty simple!
If you elect for The Superior Shave to further hone your razor [add a ‘note to vendor’ at checkout denoting this preference], this TI shall be honed in the manner taught in 2016 to The Superior Shave’s proprietor by two kind Solingen master grinders (whom did/do not work for Dovo, but do use similar 1840s grinders’ textbooks methods). Regardless of their poor refinement compared to further-honed ‘Honemeister’ edges on offer, some physical elements of factory edges remain superior to most further honing attempts. The Superior Shave will devote the extra time to your razor a dying industry cannot afford in overhead, without taking away the factory edge’s inherently advantaged geometric metrics. We’re confident we offer the materially thinnest further-honed-by-vendor edge available for purchase – you’ll need to try that to understand why it matters. Please note: in the professional opinions of German and French razor grinders, a straight razor is not properly honed unless flush to the hone, without tape, so visual evidence of honing is unavoidable when honing is performed correctly according to its makers.
We hone with a method best coined as “the opposite of tape“ where a hone’s geometry’s wholly catered to performance of the razor and to no other concern. Unfortunately, this topic cannot be discussed upon any English-based straight-razor-centric forum because a select group of e-enthusiasts cannot abide such open discourse. Be encouraged to think for yourself, and let your beard and sense of touch be the judge; there is a lot of misinformation out there, much purportedly from experts! We wish you good shopping, and Happy Shaving.
