Французские бритвы (отзывы)

[Олег Бритва]

Ищем деньги на заказ. Заказ готов, но французы пока не дали отмашку на оплату.

[unsui]

хотя бы в пределах десяти... Я бы с радостью взял..

[Wawick]

Silverwing Carbonsong

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[Arodion499]

Скажите, чем отличаются модели бритв Thiers-Issard. Если сталь одинаковая (интересует новая Silwerwing 135С), то отличия лишь во внешнем виде? Модели "1196", "SPECIAL COIFFEUR", "Le DANDY", "SUPER GNOME", "FOX AND ROOSTER" все из одинаковой стали, так в чем же разница??

[Aleks Ander]

Если сталь одинаковая, то отличия только в размерах и оформлении - всяческих рисунках и рукоятках.

[Бессмертный Джо]

так "SUPER GNOME" там же вроде обычная сталь, по крайней мере на сайте в описании про Silwerwing что касается этой модели ничего не упоминается

[Олег Бритва]

Я не знаю какая там сталь, но бреют Гномы лучше всех.

[Aleks Ander]

Сложно сказать, в чём отличие "старой" стали Thiers-Issaard от Silverwing и Carbonsong. Видимо, в тонкостях, касающихся достижения определённого высокого уровня качества заточки.

Wawick выложил (см. выше) один из обзоров Carbonsong. Также, в статьях есть текстовый обзор предыдущей Silverwing, там же про её отличия от "старой" стали.

В целом, как мне кажется, для новичка - почти без разницы, для придирчивого "старичка" - разница есть, и существенная.

[Aleks Ander]

Thiers-Issard прислали нам обзор новой бритвы Oakwing G, которая присутствует в нашем последнем заказе на продукцию этой фабрики, и через некоторое время (1-2 месяца) будет у нас. Данный обзор был подготовлен для публикации на ресурсах Straight Razor Place и Badger and Blade.

Если вдруг кому-то не лень, можете помочь с переводом

Thiers-Issard - Limited Edition Oak Wing G

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INTRODUCTION

Well here it is not even six months gone since my last review and once again I have a new razor from Thiers-Issard to write about. This latest straight razor is known as the the Oak Wing G and boasts a mirror-polished 7/8 blade with custom spine decoration, all wrapped up in luscious chocolate colored, Figured Maple scales. The ‘G’ in the name stands for Grelot and is meant as an ‘homage’ to that earlier brand of straight razor series which have served as an inspiration for many of the new models being produced by Thiers-Issard, but is not meant as a re-commercialization of the old Grelot trademark or line.

As usual, I’ve gone completely out of my mind, collecting as much production information as I could with the generous assistance of the TI production staff who were kind enough to flood me with tons of interesting and semi-known technical details regarding the production of this razor. This plethora of technical details will hopefully help you to better understand (as it has me) the process of razor making in general. But I’m going to suppress my enthusiasm for a few paragraphs and instead lead off with the most important aspect of any straight razor - the shave.


THE SHAVE

First, some happy news. This razor definitely arrived in ‘shave ready’ condition. I needed only rinse off the light film of protective oil after which I gave it about ten or twenty passes on clean leather before attacking my whiskers.

TI has definitely ‘zeroed in’ their sharpening technique if this blade is any indicator. Again to note that the factory is now putting the edge on their blades using a new variable-speed sharpening machine with a proprietary mix of diamond and ceramic media. This provides the user with a very keen edge right out of the box. I hasten to add that everyone has their own ‘sweet spot’ when it comes to judging if a straight razor is ‘shave ready’, but suffice it to say that the Oak Wing G that I received has a cutting edge that doesn’t fail to please.

Performance-wise, this blade inspires. The razor felt clean and precise in my hand. Good balance, clean jimping and a generous thumb notch all contribute to good control and maneuverability. The blade felt wicked sharp and happily snow-plowed through my lathered whiskers without trouble. Second overs, across and against the grain, presented no problems and the final touch-up passes on moistened skin easily skimmed off the odd bit of missed stubble. I’ve shaved about three or four times with this blade and continue to be very impressed.

Although a larger, heavier forging than its little brother, the Crown Wing, (add link here) the Oak Wing G still feels nimble in the hand and on the face. The advantage here is that the profile fairs down to the cutting edge at the nose and the thumb notch. I’m sure that those of you with slightly larger hands and heavier beards will really like this razor.


THE BLADE

The mirror-polished blade on the Oak Wing G is a true 7/8 blade, ground from forged Carbonsong 135 steel. This is a new forging and is heavier and longer than the forging from which the smaller, Crown Wing series was ground. In common with the Crown Wing this is a shoulderless grind with a deep thumb notch having jimps on the rear of the spine and on the underside of the thumb notch. Unlike the Crown Wing series which had a rounded nose, the Oak Wing G has been fashioned with a barber’s notch (TI refers to it a ‘hook nose’). The blade actually begins life as a squared-off forging which is ground back by hand to the desired form. This squared-off forging allows much more production flexibility and TI can actually offer any straight razor point type from this forging (square, round, oblique, etc.) by the simple process of grinding the nose back and to form. Obviously, very slight production differences will inevitably occur.

It is worth noting that a similar blade profile will be found on other 7/8 straight razors produced by TI. While it is true that they start from the same (new) forging, the Oak Wing G differs in having a new, extra heavy grind that is as close to a true quarter hollow as the steel forging and the grinding machines will permit.

[Note: I am led to understand that Thiers-Issard is currently the only straight razor manufacturer producing a 7/8 blade from a new steel forging. Other manufacturers are either using up stocks of old forgings or else grinding their blades from bar stock. (Please feel free to correct me should I be in error.)]

The front side of the tang has the Theirs-Issard stamp and the reverse of the blade bears (again) the quality control letter and alongside of that a discrete laser marking of an oak wing and the razor's serial number within this series.

The finished blade measures approximately 151 mm (6 inches) from nose to tang end, about 63 mm (2-1/2 inches) of this length being devoted to the cutting edge. The blade width is a true 7/8 (I checked) with a spine thickness around 5.5 mm (7/32 inch) in width. The weight of the complete razor is in the neighborhood of 58 grams (2 ounces)


FIT & FINISH

News Flash! TI finally (finally!) got the scale length properly matched to the blade. The pinning of the blade was good and tight, with the blade centering properly between the scales. As these scales are made of Maple, there should be no issues with the rivets sinking down into the wood during the pinning process.

As I already mentioned, TI’s signature, mirror polish is in evidence and looking as fine as ever. The bevel is equal and even on both front and reverse of the blade. The tang tapers smoothly inwards from both sides of the blade. In other words - properly centered (nice!). I inspected this blade all over and have absolutely no criticisms. That said, we know that these razors are made by hand and there will be inevitable, small differences from one to another. Your Mileage May Vary.

Regarding the finish on the scales, I was very pleased. They present a soft, lustrous surface finish, the appearance being something between buffed and varnished to the eye. In my opinion these scales have the sort of understated elegance that will continue to satisfy for years to come.

Beyond the elegance of the wood figuring and finish, these scales are the new 'extra-large' size that TI has started to use for all its 7/8 razors. The extra width was not only in order to provide better balance and more depth, but also to insure that the blade edge doesn't protrude beyond the bottom of the scales. A side benefit of the wider scale is to provide more room for showing grain and figure, which this certainly does.


BLADE BACK DECORATION

This blade is really dressed up to do the town! What else can I say?!

In addition to the faultless mirror polish, the spine of the Oak Wing G has been custom engraved with a special design created exclusively for this limited run. A central letter “G” (for Grelot) is flanked by two encircled bells on either side in a field of Oak Leaves and Arabesques, quite like the engraving found on fine old firearms. With the exception of the four bells, there are no repeat elements in this design. The oak leaves and swirls are all subtly different from one another. The artwork and attention to detail are really something special and are best appreciated up close and personal in the photos accompanying this article. Personally, think the artist did an outstanding job of working this design into a mere five-millimeter wide strip.

The factory took more than two months to finalize the design and anther few months after that to fine tune the engraving technique. TI told me that this design pushes the resolution limits of their engraving process. During this time several prototypes were made and shown around to gain feedback. The consensus was universally, amazingly positive and can be summed up by saying that this special, engraved decoration is what elevates this particular straight razor to a higher level; in essence, changing chalk to cheese.


THE SCALES

The scales on the Oak Wing G are again a special run produced expressly for this limited series. The previous limited series razor from TI, the Grelot Crown Wing, was scaled in historic Cuban Mahogany which had been purchased from a furniture factory. This time, TI raided a music factory for a special load of Figured Maple wood cutoffs which came from the production of electric guitar bodies.

Figured Maple wood is prized for the range of patterns (figuring) that can occur in its grain. The beauty and diversity of the naturally occurring variations in the grain run the gamut from plain to spotted, swirled, curly or even bird’s eyes. There will never ever be two identical sets of scales made from this wood.

Augmenting the beauty of these scales is a special pressure treatment of plastic resin and pigmented dye, giving added strength, depth, color and luster to the wood. Unlike a brushed-on finish, this plastic/dye combination is forced right down into the cellular structure of the wood, which makes these scales not only extremely resistant to water damage, but also easy to rebuff should the surface lose its luster. The pigmented dye portion of this injected combination gives a marvelous deep brown color which, in combination with the delightful grain patterns of the figured maple, produces what I would describe as the delicious coloration of frothy chocolate milk.

If at this point any of you are thinking, “These are just fancy, Stamina wood, scales.”, then I would like to set the facts straight. Stamina wood is a composite made up of veneers which are sandwiched together in a body of phenolic resin under heat and pressure. The scales for the Oak Wing G are made from solid, Figured Maple which has been impregnated to it’s very core with a mixture of plastic resin and pigmented dye.

Thiers-Issard elected to have the resin impregnation done at a small, nearby French factory. This decision was taken not only in order to support the local economy, but also because it offered much better oversight and control of the ongoing process. This French factory uses a proprietary impregnation process which produces results that are less garish than those produced by other factories, the end result more closely approaching the coloration of real wood which is what was desired for this series.

These kinds of resin impregnated solid wood scales are usually if not always the exclusive domain of custom razors. It must also be said that it is difficult to find resin impregnated material of suitable size for razor scales. The knife scale and block materials which are commonly to be found in lengths of 127mm (4-7/8”) which falls short of the 155mm length (6”) required to produce razor scales.

The production process begins with the figured Maple being cut into blocks of sufficient size to provide six scales (enough for three complete razors). The wood cannot be worked any further at this point since the impregnation process causes the wood to swell and move.

These blocks are now sorted according to the best grain figuring. A white indelible line is marked at the end of each block to identify the future direction of cut in order that the best figuring of the wood will be brought out in the scales. The impregnation process covers up the figuring which will not become visible again until after the blocks have been cut. Without the white reference line, cutting mistakes would inevitably occur, leading to less attractive or downright unacceptable scales.

The sized blocks are then placed into a thick-walled pressure chamber, ready to undergo an impregnation cycle which lasts something between one and two days. Strong pumps slowly reduce the air pressure in the chamber until the wood is sitting in a near total vacuum. The wood blocks are allowed to ‘soak’ in this vacuum for sufficient time to allow all air and any remaining moisture to be sucked out from the wood cells. The second stage of the cycle sees the chamber flooded with the plastic resin/dye mix. The vacuum in the wood causes this mixture to be pulled right down into the cellular structure of the wood. At the same time, the pumps are reversed, forcing air into the sealed chamber, creating an extreme high pressure to more fully drive the plastic/dye combination down into the interior of the wood. This cycled vacuum/pressure procedure virtually guarantees 100% mixture penetration into the very center of these blocks of wood.

The down side to the process is that to attain this complete penetration the plastic mix must be both thin in consistency and slow setting... extremely slow setting. In point of fact, following the two-day impregnation cycle, the wood blocks then require another eight weeks of curing time to allow the plastic deep within the wood’s grain structure to harden to the point where the blocks are finally ready to be sliced up into the smaller slices from which the scales are cut.

Once the curing time is finished, each block is first sanded flat and true on one side, with another side then being sanded true and square relative to the first, this to provide reference faces so that the cutting operations to follow will run true. The blocks are now sawn into six smaller pieces, each one large enough to provide one scale. The process remains difficult as the wood still wants to move a bit after being cut.

Complicating the production is the fact that the fresh cut surfaces reveal plastic mix which isn’t yet as fully hardened as the plastic on the surfaces which constituted the outsides of the original block. In point of fact it is necessary to let the wood rest at each successive stage of being worked into the final form of the scales in order to give any non-hardened plastic mix time to cure.

Once the wood has been properly sliced it is first routed to form and then hand selected in matching pairs according to thickness, color and figure. Do note that the grain pattern on each pair of scales is not ‘book matched’, but rather pairs of scales are selected and matched so as to provide the most interesting and visually satisfying result on both the front and back of the razor. Matched scale pairs now move along to the finish process where they are subjected to four or five successively finer sanding operations followed by a final buffing to bring out the luster.


PRESENTATION BOX

In common with most of the previous limited production ‘Wing’ series straight razors from Thiers-Issard the Oak Wing G also comes in a handsome presentation box. This box is produced from the same Figured Maple, but with a simple varnish finish. On the box lid will be found an inset, brass wing, laser-engraved with the TI company name, a bell, an oak leaf and the razor’s serial number. In common with other TI limited edition razor presentation boxes this one also has the little bullet hinges, magnetic catch and a sober red-flocked insert.


PRICE & AVAILABILITY

The Oak Wing G is an absolutely limited edition of 450 pieces. The price has been set at $469 in the US and Canada, 369€ in Europe and £327 in the UK.

A small confession is in order at this point. I have known about this razor for a few months already, but was prevented from writing and posting this article until TI had actual supplies ready to send out to the world. This was to avoid the situation which occurred when I posted the Grelot Crown Wing article, with potential buyers dashing about asking, “OK, I want one, but where and when will it be available?” But, you can rest easy this time. My contact at Thiers-Issard has informed me that as of the time of this writing around eighty units (80) of the Oak Wing G have already been finished and shipped out to distributors.

There has been incredible demand for the limited edition straight razors which TI has been producing over recent years. They are prized by both users as well as collectors and few of these razors are ever put up for resale. I should also note that they have been selling at an increasing tempo. To illustrate this, I can roughly cite the sales cycles for some of the limited editions which have come before. The original Pierre Theirs series (450 units) sold out over a period of ten years. The first Silver Wing (300 units) sold out within a span of just four years. The French nose Silver Wing II with rams horn scales ( 300 units ) was gone in a mere two-and-one-half to three years. The Grelot Crown Wing (350 units) will be completely gone within the span of approximately one year. These figures would suggest that you should not hesitate too long if you are interested in the new Oak Wing G.


CONCLUSION

Whether or not I could say that this latest straight razor offering from TI is the best thing since sliced bread might be up for debate, but I think I can safely sum it all up with the following:

This is an extremely attractive, limited edition 7/8 razor with a barber's notch nose, dressed in a handsome pair of resin-impregnated, chocolate colored, Figured Maple wooden scales. The blade is an extra-heavy near-quarter hollow grind (the closest thing to the long gone Grelots that TI can make) forged from Carbonsong 135 steel which gives superb hardness and fine edge-holding abilities. Dressing up that mirror polished blade is what might very possibly be the finest, engraved spine design one will find on any modern razor. All these positive qualities and its collectible nature make the Oak Wing G really something of a bargain: a wonderful limited edition straight razor with tons of features at a better price than almost any custom razor.

Иллюстрации

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[Aleks Ander]

David Loft, Thiers-Issard:

Alexander, as always, thank you. I translate sometimes your very interesting website and forum and enjoy reading it very much. Please say hello to all the razor users out there, whether Thiers-Issard, Dovo, or others. They are all wonderful!

I am sure you are going to like the new OAKWING G. I am shaving with it every day and like it more and more. But dont forget the CROWNWING, it is also amazing and fits many peoples hands even better!

Перевод (дословный)

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Александр, как всегда, благодарю. Я перевожу иногда ваши крайне интересные вебсайт и форум, и наслаждаюсь чтением. Пожалуйста, передай привет всем использующим опасные бритвы, не важно, Thiers-Issard, Dovo или другие. Все они прекрасны!

Я уверен, что вам понравится новая OAKWING G. Я бреюсь ею ежедневно, и люблю её всё больше. Но не забывайте и про CROWNWING, тоже отличной бритве, которая подходит некоторым пиплсам даже больше!

[OCTOPUSX]

Ну как придет Thiers-Issard Oakwing G....отложите там одну для меня

[Aleks Ander]

Всего будет 6 штук, товарищи

[al-mani]

Добрый день! Сколько будет стоить в Вашем магазине?

[кактус65]

Thiers-Issard Oakwing G-прошу мне тоже за резервировать,беру

[Aleks Ander]

al-mani, лучше даже не буду предполагать, чтобы не распространять дезинформацию.

[OCTOPUSX]

и чтоб номер ровный был

[ivan-3]

Судя по всему цена шокирует многих
Там же есть описалово цены у них - плюс доставка, растаможка, ндс и т.д. уже сильно за 20 перевалило аа то и за 25.
Пошел в гугл транслейт смотреть перевод за что такое деньга плотить

[Aleks Ander]

Не не, ivan-3, дорогой ты наш, не пугай народ. До 20 не дойдёт, я почти уверен в этом

[Олег Бритва]

Думаю, не так всё страшно будет.

[al-mani]

На импортных сайтах она стоит 520 евро. Доставка, таможня что там ещё будет. Если очень нравиться то все равно купим. Бритва понравилась даже моей жене, а это дорогого стоит.

Извиняюсь за поправку, ибо не приветствую подобные действия на нашем ресурсе.