Description
Handmade in France
Made by hand, uniquely, “TIs” are the most hollow and flexible razors in the world still made.
Thiers-Issard has produced straight razors for nearly 100 years in Thiers, France, in the traditional methods unique to this most special of nations.
The “Le Chatellerault” is an extra full ground special razor, because the molten steel used was forged in the early 20th century for Jacob HOLTZER; the steel was forged then, and thereafter tempered/ground/polished/laser engraved/sharpened/scaled by the Thiers-Issard of today. Likely in pockets of cutlery of the EU there are more still opportunities for historic forgings, so it is sort of like buying “whisky with a story”, as I like to call it – this steel is not the Carbonsong C135 of TI’s own creation as on almost every other razor they make. Not quite the same as any other modern forged TI, and so whether that is a good or bad thing is for you to decide, but a collector should have one, I suspect. Being as the razor is indeed from old forgings, there are always subtle variances from piece to piece, because they didn’t necessarily use the same forging die for each piece, even though they did likely use the same raw blank of steel to smack in to those various dies. So, while it doesn’t have “natural” variances such as a wood or horn razor, we have shown them individually here, and you can see that for example the ‘monkey tail’ is a bit longer on #2 than the other pieces.
The razor comes with their basic black lambskin pouch, has the adorable “Stork on the Roof” scales of modest white plastic, and weighs about forty-five grams.
It is not the equal of 6/8″ to the modern Evide Sonnant Extra in the quoted-vs-actual-width, though the ’round’ head used here does in fact look just like the modern ESEs, with the rather crisp terminus.
“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 Thiers-Issard 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 with the drop-down menu], 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.
