Thiers Issard 1196 Evide Sonnant Extra 6/8" Hollow Ground Straight Razor France

Description

You likely didn't know it when you clicked on this listing, but you've stumbled upon the sales offerings of what is extremely likely to be the most straight-razor-centric and wholly obsessed human in the Western Hemisphere.    If European razors cease to be produced, I will likely lose my home - so you can be sure my goals are to keep this great tradition alive.   Sadly, the wholly false and routine statements from its highest level devotees in America are a large reason why the industry is in great decline.
Thiers-Issard has produced straight razors for nearly 100 years in Thiers, France, in the traditional methods unique to this most special of nations.
The 1196 Evide Sonnant Extra is TI's least expensive offering in 6/8" with their hollowest grind; these are the things you want to pay for.   The thinness and flexibility of the Thiers-Issard cutting edge are absolutely spectacular; place expectations in this critical metric to their very highest.   They do a tremendous job of pinning the scales tight on this model every time.   They're real tight, but you don't hear of them break like the Dovo Best Quality do all the time (admittedly only w/ user error, however those errors are easy to make and of no restriction at all on practically any other str8rzr).   It isn't the tightest of tolerances made item on the planet, but it is materially superior as a shaving implement to the offerings in the market which cost less new to buy in the opinion of this writer, and it is not even close.   The best value implement below this price would be Dovo 100681, but it doesn't compare to this razor, no offense to the Dovo.
Please indicate in your notes section to the vendor whether you would like a factory-sealed and untouched-after-France Evide Sonnant Extra, or if you wish your razor further honed post-factory by The Superior Shave (where you will almost certainly detect unpredictable visual evidence, and for which you may or not like the ‘shave ready’ edge much more than the factory one).   The choice is yours, and there is no right or wrong answer.   If you don’t put in a note, we will contact you requesting the same information, and will not ship until you declare your preferences.
You see, we just want you happy.
Do we think you’ll be happy w/ the factory TI edge?  Yes, most of the time, they're awfully good.   But opinions vary.   The Superior Shave feels that the factory edge from Thiers-Issard is "Shave Ready" already, but I'm not removing oil and stropping and testing each one.   I've just never been asked to further hone, de-oiled and stropped the piece, and not been duly impressed by the reaction that cutting edge presents to hair *before* I take it to stone.   So I wholly doubt I make the cutting edges keener, however I know TI sets on stones and ends on pastes only, I am instead using a black Arkansas stone as the finishing step, which I feel is superior in the whole to the nonetheless formidable pastes option.  They're both good.
Have you heard that Thiers-Issard razors are difficult to hone?  Well, unfortunately the overwhelming majority of North American suppliers if further honing post-factory are doing it entirely wrong according to Thiers-Issard themselves.   TI uses wheel-shaped abrasives, never flat abrasives, to form the cutting edge, because this provides a slight but crucial concavity to the bevel form itself.   If you remove that with your V-shaped isosceles triangle cutting edge (aka 'bevel') as you've read over and over online is "correct" (not according to the actual manufacturers!), your razor will never be the same.   Ultimately, it is up to you, the end user, to decide whether you place a value in a manufacturer's position upon what is and is not correct for the ideal performance of the object they produce, or to go with the advice from the cabal of self-appointed and self-taught experts of the various North American shaving forums.
This is a Personal Use item designed for direct interaction with human tissue, and you will receive a new and never used piece.  Because of the nature of Personal Use items, we cannot accept returns and we cannot guarantee your subjective perfect satisfaction with the tool.   Thiers-Issard makes their razors "
humanly, and as well as possible
" (the actual words from David Loft, the former managing director, to my ears), and
handmade variances which some will characterize as 'defects' are in fact to Thiers-Issard a guarantee of true hand-made production, and a point of pride
.
EACH RAZOR EXHIBITS INDIVIDUAL VARIANCES BY INTENTION WHICH ARE NOT DEFECTS ACCORDING TO THEIR MANUFACTURER, AND RETURNS ARE NOT ACCEPTED
eBay can certainly help propel Thiers-Issard's annual production volume, but the first person that circumvents the nature of the Personal Use item via this sales channel will certainly be the last, and if we must restrict the sale of straight razors to our direct site simply (because it is impossible for the consumer to win a dispute/chargeback when "...¡NORETURNOREXCHANGE" is written on the product Title and SKU itself), so it shall be.   We've already eliminated the option of the other very large sales arena to which you're undoubtedly familiar because they don't care what the vendor says, so we'll see how it goes for eBay here in 2021.    When you buy a straight razor from arenas which would allow you to return such an intimate Personal Use item, you should never assume your so-called "new" razor's cutting edge did not touch a consumer's skin prior to you.   But when you buy a razor from Jarrod Connerty of The Superior Shave, love or loathe him and regardless of what venue you buy, the one thing you can trust is that you're truly the first to take the cutting edge to its intended task(which is namely to be placed flush to skin for the purpose of hair removal).