Straight Razors Grinds

Let's talk a little about razor "grinds". The grind is another way to classify a straight razor and is simply the cross-section of the blade. As you can see by the picture below, there are four basic straight razor grinds; wedge, quarter hollow, half hollow, and full hollow. The full hollow is sometimes called a "singing" blade and is a very difficult grind for a razor maker to master.

The difference between the grinds can be seen in the picture; the wedge has straight sides between the spine of the blade and its edge, whereas the hollows have varying degrees of concavity. This very basically equates to the amount of metal a straight razor blade has for a given width.




On the one end of the spectrum, the wedge is obviously a heavier blade. The advantage is that since you should ALWAYS allow the weight of the razor to do the cutting (i.e. don’t press down), a heavier blade cuts with less effort. These razors are great for coarse or thick beards. The disadvantage is twofold; 1) wedges have less flexibility, less “give”, and less resistance to cutting, so it’s easier to cut your skin along with your hair, and 2) wedges are harder to hone, because you have more metal to remove in order to make a proper edge.

On the other hand, the full hollow is a lighter, more flexible blade. You should still ALWAYS allow the weight of the razor do the cutting (sound familiar?), but a concave (hollow) blade tends to be a lot more forgiving of slight skin imperfections. Also, the more hollow the blade, the more you can really feel the resistance of your beard with the razor itself, so you have an earlier indication of when the blade is getting dull and needs to be honed. They’re not nearly as effective on particularly heavy beards, but the concave grinds are great for most men. Plus, they’re easier to hone.

I’m not saying that the concave grind is better overall. It’s a matter of personal taste. A lot of men who don’t have thick beards love the wedge because 1) it can shave just as well as a hollow grind, 2) it’s just more manly (like using a meat cleaver to shave with!), and 3) it does require a higher level of control and skill to shave with a wedge and not nick yourself.

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DOVO Straight Razors

Dovo is one of only two major makers of straight razors still in operation today that are both high quality and mass made; the other is Thiers-Issard from France. There are several artisans around who create individual pieces, such as Tim Zowada and Mastro Livi; very high quality, but harder to buy due to limited supply.

Incidentally, there are mass produced pieces from companies out of Pakistan and China, but I do NOT recommend them, because the blade metal is not good quality. There have been many complaints from people who have bought these blades about how hard they are to keep sharp and some blades have even snapped while sharpening! You won't have that kind of problem from Dovo, Thiers-Issard, or any individual artisan.

Choose a high quality Dovo and you won't regret it!

Straight Razor Types

Straight razors are classified based on several attributes; some of the more common are blade metal, blade width, and the scales material.

Straight razor blades are usually made from carbon steel, stainless steel, or some variation alloy such as silver steel and Damascus steel. The general difference is that stainless protects better against rust and is harder, which means that it will hold its edge better than carbon steel, but is more difficult to sharpen when it does get dull. Alloys will vary in their advantages; some have even better rust protection and some just make the blade shiny. However, their use is limited; carbon and stainless are the most common metals by far.Blade width is the distance between “edge” (the sharp side) and the “back” (the part opposite the edge) and is measured in eighths of an inch. A ¾” blade is called a 6/8 blade. 5/8 is the most common size. Few men like anything smaller (you know how we are), but the smaller blades (usually no smaller than 4/8) are easier to maneuver in the tight spots like the upper lip and just under the chin. Some men like the really large blades, 7/8 or 8/8, also called “Lip Loppers”, because you can let the weight of those blades do the work and just slice right through your hair. The disadvantage to bigger blades is that they are less flexible (less “giving”), so there’s a higher chance of cutting yourself, unless you’re very careful and experienced.

Scales are the handle pieces; two scales riveted together form the handle. Scale material comes in five general categories; plastic, wood, bone, fossil, and exotic. Each category, of course, has several or many individual items. For instance, “wood” can mean redwood, cedar, snakewood, bocote, olivewood, kingwood, ironwood, and many others. Plastic includes celluloid, polypropylene, and “tortoise shell” because those are always faux shell and made from plastic. For bone, I’m including ivory, horn (usually ram or buffalo) and oosik. Fossil scales can include bone fossils, fossilized ivory, and fossilized oosik. Exotic actually means anything that doesn’t fit in the other categories, like mother of pearl, micarta (a laminate that one could argue is actually a plastic), and metal, like steel or brass. Now bear with me on this topic of oosik. As you may or may not know, almost all male mammals have a baculum, or penis bone, with the exception of humans (of course), horses, cetaceans (whales & dolphins), rabbits, marsupials, and hyenas. Oosik is the baculum of native Alaskan carnivores, specifically pinnipeds (walruses, seals, and sea lions) and polar bears. Oosik is often used in Alaska for making knife handles and I’ve seen it used for razor scales as well.

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Back to Basics

Have you noticed lately that a lot of people are “getting back to basics”? Granted, I love technology; I would HATE to not have my computer or my HDTV or my cell phone. However, there are certain things that I really feel are better when they’re done the "old-fashioned" way. For instance, although I have a cell phone for when I’m on the go, I still have a landline at home and have no intention of ever getting rid of it; it’s just too reliable. Also, my wife and I shun the microwave; we have one, we’d just think that food cooked in a regular oven tastes better.

The one thing I’ve really gone back in time for, though, is a nice, comfortable, luxury shave using a straight razor. Cartridge blades, disposables, and electric razors either just don’t shave close enough or do so at the expense of your skin. How many of you HATE shaving? It's irritating, it leaves you itchy for hours.... For some of us, it leaves you with razor bumps or severe razor burn, and that foamy stuff in a can has way too many manmade chemicals in it; it can’t be good for you.

Straight razors, like those made by Dovo, along with a good, old-fashioned shave soap (or cream), a shave brush, and lots of water will give you the closest, smoothest, most comfortable shave you’ve had in a long time. Plus, there’s practically no chance for razor bumps. Razor bumps occur when a hair is cut below the skin line and then gets caught underneath when it tries to grow. Multi-bladed razor commercials actually brag about how one blade grips the hair and pulls it while the next blade cuts it below the skin line, claiming that’s how they give you the “closest” shave. What a crock! Straight razors can’t cut your hair below the skin line, just to skin level, so all you feel is skin; a close shave and no bumps!