Portland Razor Pro : Bronze Certification

We are proud to introduce this educational series for professionals interested in using Portland Razor Co. straight razors! This series will help you get the most out of your conventional straight razor, improve the quality of your services, and help you stand out.

"Straight Razor", "Cutthroat Razor", "Open Razor", "Conventional Straight Razor", "Folding Razor", whatever you call it, you have probably heard that these razors are illegal to use in barbershops in the United States. In most cases, this is not true. Just like clippers and shears, there are rules for HOW to use them to keep you and your clients safe. If you are a licensed barber or stylist looking to take the leap, our free course is here to help! Read on for full details.

Our Bronze Certification is completely free and packed with useful information for new and veteran barbers alike. We believe straight razor shaving to be at the heart of traditional barbering, so we are very excited for the opportunity to contribute to its resurgence in the American barbershop.

Unfortunately, we have heard from many hair professionals that instruction on the use of traditional straight razors is not widely available. We want our customers to have a great experience with their razors, so we developed our own series of courses to help barbers further their understanding of these traditional tools. Topics discussed in the Bronze Certification include, but are not limited to:

• Straight Razor Anatomy
• Strop Anatomy
• Safe Handling of the Razor
• Special Care Considerations
• Stropping
• Honing // When to hone, who can hone
• Sanitation

Licensed professionals are expected to perform due diligence and check with their local health authority for specific guidelines and regulations controlling the use of straight razors before using them in a licensed facility.

To become Bronze Certified, read through the information document and take the online exam. After you submit the exam, we will review and contact you within 5-7 business days with your results.
Again, the Bronze Certification is completely FREE. Even if you do not intend to take the test, the free info document contains a wealth of knowledge that will help you get the most out of your razor.

We know that you expect a lot from your tools. Good tools are an investment in yourself, your best work, and your clients’ satisfaction. We believe that conventional straight razors are superior to disposables in every way, and want you and your clients to have the best possible experience with our product. Whatever your experience level--novice or expert--we strongly recommend you read the free intro document and take the test if you want to get the most out of your straight razor. Take care of your tools, and they will take care of you!

Read the Intro Doc HERE

Take the Bronze Certification Exam HERE

Introducing the 5/8 Cascade Steel Straight Razor

We are proud to introduce our newest product, the 5/8 Cascade Steel Straight Razor! It is handmade in our Portland, OR facility (just like the rest of our straight razors) and it features a vintage profile. It is also our first production razor to ever be made of stainless steel! The 5/8 Cascade Steel Straight Razor is available in both square and round points and launched last week with 4 scales options.

CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT AND UNCOMPROMISING QUALITY

With the Cascade Steel Straight Razors, we set our sights on making our best production straight razor yet: a razor with classic style and the quality of old American craftsmanship, with the best modern materials available to us. Since our founding we have worked to make modern straight razors worthy of handing down to future generations. To us this means making an heirloom quality product that honors the tradition of the straight razor and utilizes modern advancements in materials and technology to make something that is truly at the forefront. For this straight razor we wanted to make something that would step up our game and be our most useable grooming tool yet. The 5/8 Cascade Steel Straight Razor fits in the hand, has excellent balance between the blade and the scales, and is our first stain-resistant razor model.

Stainless steel razors are somewhat disreputable in the straight razor community. Many stainless razors seem brittle, difficult to maintain, and just don’t shave quite as smoothly as their high-carbon steel counterparts. On one hand, high carbon steel straight razors work very well. On the other hand, high carbon steel is hard to take care of and is unlike other blades most of us have in our lives - pocket knives, kitchen knives, scissors, garden shears - the majority of these cutting tools are stain-resistant and in 2017 we expect that our metals don’t rust. It would be a shame not to try and make a stainless razor ourselves that we found to be comparable if not higher-performing than high-carbon steel razors. Stainless straight razors get a bad rap and we attribute these negative characteristics to unwanted chromium carbide formation, a common tradeoff in stainless blade steels. So, if we could find the right stainless steel and heat treat it optimally to minimize chromium carbide formation, we suspected we could make a superior razor steel.

It took some time, but we believe our persistence paid off!

Fueled by our obsession with performance and finding the right tool for the job, we experimented with a number of new blade steels and heat treatment processes to find the ultimate razor steel. Not only did these experiments result in a new product, they lead to marked improvements to our heat treatment protocol across all of our straight razors. Our Classic Line and Artisan Line blades also leveled up as a result of our experimentation with heat treating the Cascade Steel blades. All of our blades now in production are harder, thinner, and sharper than earlier production models and we aren’t afraid to say that these are our best production razors yet.

As for the look of the razor - you all are very vocal in your requests for a more vintage-looking razor from us -- we hope this razor shows that we take your comments to heart! With this in mind, we turned to our favorite vintage straight razors for inspiration. Familiar lines, a lick of our signature style, and cutting edge materials have made this a fast favorite around the shop; we are all very excited to finally have it in production!

WHAT SETS THE CASCADE STEEL STRAIGHT RAZOR APART?

In short, it shaves effortlessly and it’s easier to maintain. Here’s why:
Smaller Carbides = Improved Sharpness.
We used a modern steel engineered specifically for use in delicate cutting instruments which, with optimal heat treatment, results in the finest cutting edge available. The edge is more aggressive and shaves with less effort and more audible feedback, improving the overall shaving experience by reducing resistance.
Increased Wear-Resistance = Improved Edge Retention
Nobody likes having to strop mid-shave. Harder, more wear-resistant steels result in longer-lasting edges that glide through coarse beard growth with ease.
Increased Chromium Content = Improved Stain-Resistance.
A slightly higher percentage of chromium balanced with the right amount of carbon makes this steel more stain-resistant without creating unwanted chromium carbides. One usually has to compromise carbide size for stain-resistance, but not in this case; the Cascade Steel edge shaves at least as well as O1, if not better!

Specs

• Handmade in Portland, OR
• 5/8 Round or Square Point Straight Razor
• Lower and Upper Jimps for Added Grip and Control
• Choice of Back Acrylic, Ivory Acrylic, Arizona Desert Ironwood, Ebony
• Quarter-Hollow Ground
• Cryo-Treated Cascade Steel Hardened to 62 HRC
• Shave-Ready: Hand-Honed to 12K Grit and Stropped Before Shipping
• Brass Pinned by Hand

How to be Sure You Will Receive Your Order for the Holidays

As you all know, each and every one of our straight razors and strops are handmade to order. This is a process that takes a lot of work and time. We know that this season can be stressful when it comes to considering lead times and shipping times. To give you certainty that your orders will be received in time, please take note of the following dates and plan accordingly:

DECEMBER 1, 2017

This will be the last day to place an order for production straight razors to guarantee shipments will be received before Christmas. For those of you keeping track, that’s next Friday! Orders placed after this date will be shipped in 2018. As always, there is no guaranteed delivery date for custom razors.

DECEMBER 18, 2017

This is the last day to place orders for any in-stock products and strops in time for a December 24th arrival. Orders placed after this date will be shipped in 2018.

If you are reluctant to make a decision before these cutoff dates, we do offer gift certificate codes and have an assortment of razors and shaving accessories in-stock at our brick-and-mortar location, Portland Shave Shop. While you’re at it, you can schedule a shave demo, sample soaps, learn how to strop, and even get a haircut or straight shave with one of our barbers to look extra sharp in time for your big holiday party!

Thanks for your support and we hope you all are enjoying a happy and healthy holiday season!

Honing Without Tape

All new straight razors produced after Oct 20, 2017 will be honed without tape on the spine. 

What’s Changing?

Previously, Portland Razor Co. straight razors were honed with one thickness of Super 88 electrical tape. This was done to achieve the proper bevel angle and to protect the spine from unnecessary wear during the first honing. Improvements to our manufacturing process have allowed us to do away with this step.

Should I Hone My Razor With Or Without Tape?

View fullsize

↑ We aren't doing this anymore. 

This change to our sharpening process corresponds with the change to our scales profile. Razors with the new scales -- those with the centered wedge pin -- can be honed without tape and will have the proper edge geometry for a good shaving angle. Please note, The scales profile was only altered on our Classic 6/8 razors. 7/8 and 8/8 Artisan razors still have the old shape (The Strix, Gryphon, and Phoenix). All razors, regardless of size, will be honed without tape from now on.

You can also perform a visual check to determine if your straight razor should be honed with or without tape. Examine the side of the straight razor’s spine: if there is hone wear, you can hone without tape. Hone wear on a factory-direct Portland Razor Co. straight razor looks like a very narrow flat band where the hollow grind meets the spine. If the side of the straight razor spine is free of hone wear, the straight razor was honed with tape.

Honing Service

If there is any doubt if your straight razor was honed with or without tape, don't hesitate to send it in to us for a honing service. We can hone your razor and let you know if it is to be honed with or without tape moving forward.

Thank you for your continued support, happy honing!

New Scales on "Classic Razors"

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!