New Straight Razor Vendor. Duluth Trading Co. LOL

http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/product/classic-straight-razor-48155.aspx

Master USA. (imported of course) Are these still as horrible as I remember them to be? At least they dont list it as "shave-ready", just "pre-honed". They also have a DE and a Dovo shavette. And a magic strop that "triples the life of disposable and cartridge razor blades" when you strop on the "suede side" to "sharpen". And Ogallala bay rum.

I saw one of those in person not too long ago. They're hysterically awful.

Oh now that is a shame! I have bought stuff from Duluth before and have always gotten good quality. I hate to see them go down the cheap worthless crap path.

Obviously they have nobody there who knows how to shave in the manly way. People who dont know straight razors dont know the difference between a razor and an RSO. But I liked the part about "sharpening" carts on the "suede" side of the strop.

Got a kick out of one of the reviews - "Safe enough for your kid to use it" Ha!

Stropping carts is old news, there's actually a rubber strop/block thing dedicated to that purpose out there somewhere.
I've been experimenting with using a real hone & strop in a similar manner.. seems to actually be doing something but I only use one occasionally on the back of my neck so there isn't a lot of 'testing' going on there. Could just be placebo effect at work.

But selling those b/s Master blades to shave with is a deplorable act, indicative of what they - as a company - are really all about.

The problem with stropping carts is you can only hit one side of the blade. And that the compound bevel, coated blades won't respond the way a naked blade will, anyway.

Gamma said:

Stropping carts is old news, there's actually a rubber strop/block thing dedicated to that purpose out there somewhere.
I've been experimenting with using a real hone & strop in a similar manner.. seems to actually be doing something but I only use one occasionally on the back of my neck so there isn't a lot of 'testing' going on there. Could just be placebo effect at work.

But selling those b/s Master blades to shave with is a deplorable act, indicative of what they - as a company - are really all about.

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I have had such good experience with Duluth products that I emailed them about this straight. Told them that the straight community had experience with this razor and knew it to be junk. They replied and thanked me for the information. Probably just a PR thing, but I hope I helped.

Deluth has a good reputation for their canvas goods. A lot of their stuff was getting pushed by the patherfinder store at one point. Maybe they were trying to carry some "retro" stuff for the bushcraft crowd and were trying to keep the price point down without knowing. Doubt they'd throw their good name away on purpose.

Slash McCoy said:

The problem with stropping carts is you can only hit one side of the blade. And that the compound bevel, coated blades won't respond the way a naked blade will, anyway.

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Obviously - but it doesn't mean it can't do something appreciable.
FWIW - I think it's all a hoax... but, not sure 100%.

Besides the basic geometry hurdle, the design of the head is another issue. The rails on the side of the blades will keep them off a hard substrate that is the same width or wider than the rails.
Same for a strop, unless it's like your face where 'give' lets the skin ride up to the blades.
So I'm at a loss to understand the raves over that rubber block thing sold as a strop for carts, unless it's really soft rubber or something.
My original thought was that the only thing going on was the blades were getting cleaned off.
For the 5-6x a year I use a cart, most of all of this is extremely irrelevant.
Anyway, this waaaay off topic...sorry for the hijack. Done now.

I really trust Duluth and their business practices. To the point I suspect there is more to the story than them suddenly selling junk. If I had to guess these are a special grade of razor. Honed to spec and better. I don't think Duluth is the sort of company not to do their homework.

I am betting that they just didn't know. Our beloved straight razor shaving is still a mystery to the vast majority of folks.

I actually asked about these when I was in store a little while ago. Figured I could practice with it. Its an online only. In fact, the worker didn't even know they sold them.

I would hope they would have fone research before putting these out there.

One of the comments: "This razor is so dull I tried to cut my finger and I flat out couldn't. It is NOT shave ready and didn't cut a single hair of my face. I figured I would give it the benefit of the doubt. I wish I didn't.".​

I like Duluth's work-clothes quite a bit, although they're a bit pricey. Don't think I would want to buy a straight from them though. More of a novelty-nostalgia thing there. Better to buy one new from a dedicated straight-razor vendor IMO.