We are happy to announce an all new scales profile for our Classic Straight Razors! Not only is the profile new, we are also updating our standard scales materials.
Over two years have passed since we launched our current line of classic straight razors. As fundamentally curious people we have continued to learn and grow, drawing inspiration from people, art, nature, and culture. Striving for constant improvement, our sense of product design has evolved with us, motivating play and experimentation with new concepts at Portland Razor Co. We came to the drawing board for a scales redesign with fresh eyes and did our best to pack everything we've learned about straight razors into this round of product updates.
The new scales on our Classic Straight Razors are leaner, meaner, and available in ivory acrylic, black acrylic, ebony, and Arizona desert ironwood
Shape
The front face of the scales has been slimmed down significantly to fit in the hand and between your fingers more easily. This aids in both stropping and certain shaving grips. In narrowing the profile, there is also a reduction of weight, offering excellent balance between the scales and the blade. The top profile of the scales has also been updated. All of our scales will now be made with a true wedge with a visually centered pin. The tang of all of our straight razors has also been updated: the tang is now tapered down the sides. Pinning the scales at the new tapered wedge and this tapered tang forms a perfect “bow shape” when viewing the razor from the top. These updates in the geometry make the straight razor not only look great, but feel superb in the hand.
Materials
We loved using our maple and walnut because the woods are naturally beautiful and evoke our home in the Pacific Northwest. It has come time, however, to retire these materials from our standard offerings. In seeking to make a truly heirloom quality product, we have settled on keeping our black and ivory acrylic and found some new materials that will indeed last a lifetime and make the best and last razor you will ever need. We are transitioning to a pair of dense and oily woods which are more weather resistant, more durable, and have better long-term dimensional stability: Arizona desert ironwood and ebony. To give the scales even more moisture resistance, we finish them off with a hard oil top coat. As of publishing this, the new scales are available for sale through the website.
As always, thank you to all of you for your continued support of Portland Razor Co. and we hope you all will enjoy our new and improved product!