Description
Handmade in France
Hand made, unique, and always special, Thiers-Issard makes in our opinion the most hollow and flexible razors in the world still made.
This is an extra hollow ground 6/8″ of their basic form but with decorations on both the tang and the show side which are dedicated to this historic nod, Médaille D’or Exposition Alger 1921. Someone won a medal in 1921, perhaps they were curlers known for their beloved French brooms revered for their sweeping?
The wood from a pistachio tree makes up the scales, and Thiers-Issard’s known well for their incredible pinning skills. They also age their timber blanks for several months to allow them to become as inert as possible; while wood/horn/bone/shell can never be as inert as micarta, for example, by aging the blanks they do help get them tighter and tend to stay more centered. Nonetheless (and this is good advice for ANY razor of ANY scale), always ‘finger tugboat’ your razor back in to your scale when closing, ready to guide it +/-1mm either way as need be to avoid any edge/scale collisions…better to have a tighter scale less centered than a looser one perfectly centered! In this configuration, the #14 comes in at a touch below fifty grams on the scales, and a tan leather sheath’s included with your purchase.
“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 (= do nothing, no note needed @ checkout), you’ll receive your razor exactly as its manufacturers intended…pretty simple! The factory seal’s been breached, yes, but only so you could choose from individual pictures of stock.
If you elect for The Superior Shave to further hone your razor [plz add “note to vendor” @ checkout], 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.
