Are you a straight shaver? Do you hate rust? Do you like great razors? This is for you!
This is about leveraging the only meaningful innovation in straight razor manufacture in the last 75 years for a relaxed Austere August without worrying about your precious razor rusting while you enjoy your summer.
This is about Friodom! (from rust)
TL/DR:
- Get yourself a Friodur, Inox, Eisgehärtet, Edelstahl (or any differently named stainless steel) straight razor.
- Participate in AA with it.
- Profit!
What do I need?
A stainless steel razor (If you don’t have one and are tempted by this challenge, I strongly suggest getting a Friodur 5/8 or larger, they are all very good, and typically in can be found in great condition on eBay).
Can I combine $FriodomRiders with other challenges?
Yes! $FriodomRiders is compatible with $headless, $RawHoggin, $Honemeisterschaft and all the software challenges.
How do I participate?
Include the character string “$FriodomRiders” in your SOTD posts. (Yes, that’s a Dollar sign $, not a hashtag #. If I never have to talk about hashtags in SOTD posts again, it’s still too soon 😅)
What do I get?
The honour of displaying the 🗽FriodomRider🏇 flair.
Backstory
The heyday of straight razors is the late 19th century, and a 130 year old full hollow ground Böker looks exactly like one made this year. Even modern razors who try new design languages are typically made exactly like a century ago: A blank of carbon steel is forged, tempered, ground, and scaled.
After an initial learning curve, a good straight razor delivers fantastic shaves for a lifetime if properly cared for, and here lies the rub. Most straight razors rust. You need to keep them dry and oiled between uses, or they will turn into expensive red powder.
We’re not really used to things rusting any more in our lives. Our cutlery, pots, pans, and most kitchen knives are made from stainless steel, so why aren’t razors?
The first stainless steel knives appeared in 1914, and they weren’t a success, but known as “the knife that would not cut”. The ice-hardening process for quality blades in stainless steel was only invented in 1939 and patented by Zwilling in 1951 under the name Friodur (pseudo latin for cold-hard). This means that good stainless steel came about only after the straight razors fell out of fashion.
Zwilling (Friodur), Weltmeister (eisgehärtet), Thiers Issard and Dovo (Inox), Ralf Aust (Edelstahl) all produced or still produce stainless steel razors.
I’m convinced that good stainless steal razors are on par with good carbon steel razors, and they have an undeservedly bad reputation. Join me in shining light on the best straight razors ever made.
Strope and edge maintenance suggestion. I built my own with a flat piece of wood, about an in inch wide glued a strip of leather on both side and added polishing compound to one side.the leather I do 2 or 3 passes on the polishing side than 2 3 pass on the leather side. Being flat make it easy to strope at the right angle. I had it sharpened once, about 3 years ago and it still perfectly sharp. The advise of using a stick instead of just a strap came from the sharpening guy
Stropping on a loaded strop glued to a firm flat surface indefinitely is also the way Rolls Razors and Darwin Hollow Grounds function.