Old Ram Collection Barber Straight Razor Style Manual Folding Knife.. (Red)

Not for beginners. Made in Pakistan. Mine arrived needing a lot of work to make it shave ready. The scales aren't a perfect match on the inlays. One side is different than the other. Steel seems ok. Blade on mine is semi hollow grind. I purchased this because it is smaller than a standard straight razor. That makes it more maneuverable for shaving around facial hair. Not anywhere as good as a Dovo Barbarossa, but similar application and a fraction of the price. If you have the tools, skill and time, you can get this shaving sharp and it's fun to mess with. Otherwise, you are better off buying something else.

Nothing compares to the way your skin feels after you shave with a straight razor. I've used a straight razor to shave for about seven years, after finally learning how to wield one without cutting myself to pieces (pro tip: use an old-fashioned safety razor for a few months, every day. Something about the technique you pick up subconsciously teaches you the precise angle and shaving motion required for a straight blade.) But you don't need to worry about cutting yourself with THIS blade. The edge was exceedingly mediocre, right out of the box. And it dulled to the point of being useless6within four or five shaves of just one or two days worth of stubble. I've tried to sharpen it, repeatedly using the strop, Russian leather, and I've spent an hour using the whetstone to try to get a decent edge back to it... ... to no avail. This disappoints me, because I love the look and feel of the razor. It's slightly smaller than most of the other razors in my collection (I own almost a dozen). I know that the $30 or so price point should have served as a red flag, but I really had hoped that it would not have been THIS bad.