Customer Reviews

Fromm Straight Razor, 5/8"

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this razor for my husband as a Christmas gift. He previously had an awesome experience with a straight razor shave at a barber shop and wanted to recreate this at home. I thought this would make a nice gift...I bought him the razor, strop, strop dressing, shave set, and soap, etc...I thought "how cool would it be for him to be able to try this out the day he receives it?"...So, I researched razors that were budget-friendly, but also had a good reputation. I kept in mind that he could try this, dislike it, and ultimately change his mind about it - may not like or decide it is not worth doing at home....anyway - This particular razor did receive some good reviews; especially from the converts - people switching from the conventional razor to a straight one. In addition, straight razors can get extremely expensive (several hundred dollars). When I looked into this one, I felt comfortable with the balance between the product reviews and the price. Appearance-wise it is a nice razor. It appears to be constructed well. However, right after I said this, my husband was inspecting it and the FROMM logo just rubbed right off....anyway, I digress.
My disappointment came with the fact that this razor was not "shave ready". This means (exactly how it sounds) that it did not arrive in the condition in which it could be shaved with. Even though I had bought my husband the strop (in which you can sharpen the blade), you cannot sharpen a non-"shave ready" razor (a.k.a. virgin blade) with a strop. You can seriously mess up the blade and/or strop. The bottom line is the razor needs to be honed. Honing requires either purchasing another set of tools (and learn how to use), taking the razor to a knife shop (good luck finding a local one), or sending it to someone who will hone it for you. So, my Christmas gift (already un-useful for the passed week) will continue to be so for a few more...We discovered today that we have to mail it to someone to hone it for us - big let down.
The morale of the story is when you are shopping for a straight razor, check to see if it is "shave ready" or not. If it does not say (like this one did not) ask...I did not know to ask this question. However, other than that, my husband likes the razor...it is just disappointing to not be able to use a gift that you have received.
Hope this helps any potential buyers!
Thanks for reading!

I have been very happy with this razor. It was easy to sharpen, and gives a close, comfortable save. I also have a Dovo Astrale, and the Fromm seems just as good a shaver.

New razors general come not shave-ready. You have to do some light honing to get a shaving edge. If you don't know how, send the razor out for $20 to get it honed.

Otto Fromm is a longstanding brand that is well respected for its razors.

I purchased this straight razor because my first, a Kreiger, was a dull piece of junk (very sharp, but not sharp enough to shave with, and the metal was not quality enough to get the required edge on it). I've read other reviews for this razor that have stated it to ship dull, well mine certainly did not. When I got it, I simply made about 15 passes on my strop, and was able to use it. I have found that the silver lettering of FROMM on the handle does rub off, and leaves it on your fingers. That doesn't effect how well it cuts though. Also the plastic handle is somewhat flimsy, so you have to be careful not to push the blade past the handle, you can bow the plastic out and have the blade exposed if you try (but you shouldn't). The blade itself seems to be very good, and I find it best to keep the blade well honed by stropping it both just before shaving, and again right after; I wash the blade carefully before doing the post shave stropping.

Overall, I think this is a great razor to get, especially if you plan to bring one for travel as it has the quality blade, but isn't rediculously expensive.

The razor arrived a few days ago, not ready for a shave. When I tried to hone it with a Norton Waterstone 4/8k, as recommended, I found out that the back of the blade on one side wasn't straight, and caused that contact with the cutting edge was irregular and made it impossible to create a decent bevel. I have no way of fixing this, so there is over $60 going down the drain. I am pretty disappointed with the product!

I purchased this straight razor for my husband and he likes it. It's his first straight razor and he had no complaints about this particular product.

NO RAZOR WILL COME "READY TO SHAVE" THEY MAY NEED A LITTLE WORK ON A HONE, SO IF YOU DON'T HAVE AT LEAST 3 STONES (1000,4000,8000)GRIT AND A LEATHER STROP YOU WILL NOT GET A STRAIGHT RAZOR TO WORK FOR YOU. THIS RAZOR CAME WARPED WITCH IS A BIG DEAL. IT IS NOT POSIBLE TO GET A CONSISTENT EDGE ON THE RAZOR. IT'S USELESS.

I bought this razor thinking I would be able to shave with it right away. It was dull when I received it and I had to buy a sharpening stone in order to get it ready to shave. It took a fair amount of time to get it sharp, and I'm still not sure it is quite right. I did a lot of research to figure out how to sharpen it and when I sharpened it, the area on the blade that was worn away - the bevel - was uneven indicating a warped blade. Specifically, one side of the blade has a wider bevel at the ends and the other side has a wider bevel in the middle. I'm giving up on this blade as inferior quality and buying a Dovo as I should have in the first place. You get what you pay for.

This Razor is not rated as the best quality out there, but it works great for me. I am learning to sharpen it on my own and it works fine for my purposes.