Straight Razor Designs

After researching straight razor shaving techniques and suppliers for a few months, I bought a Ralph Aust 6/8’s round point, from Straight Razor Designs, January, 2015. Lynn Abrams’ YouTube videos were a great help for both shaving advice and how to strop and hone a blade. I recently dropped my razor on a tile floor and folded the tip over. Sent it to Lynn the next day. Received it back last week with his usual excellent edge with a new bevel and finely honed finish — and you can’t tell it was ever damaged. Just the normal fine shave I get from this high quality tool. Lynn, Don, and another experienced man that answers the phone have all been very helpful each time I’ve called. I have been using their Latigo strop along with this razor and have been very happy with it. Lynn has gone out of his way to answer newbie questions for me and is always fun to talk to. He has honed my Aust 3 times now to include the original edge and reset the bevel and honed another razor I own that needed a lot of work. Can’t recommend Lynn or STD enough.

I order a lot of things online and have done so for years, and ordering from this company was honestly the most impressive experience I have ever had. I ordered a hanging leather strop, and it came with really excellent use and care instructions for it as well as for a straight razor. From reading them, I figured out why I’ve had problems for years with my razor getting rust spots (from rinsing it in the sink!) and learned to use the strop and avoid mistakes that I definitely would have made otherwise. The invoice was even hand-​signed. This kind of attention to detail is rare, and it really makes me feel confident that this company is well run and knows what it is doing. I will definitely order from them next time I need to buy any shaving product.

Much better places online to shop. Bullgoose has much faster delivery. Also Lee’s Razors The lady, Lynn cannot even return a call. Horrible customer service. Will never buy from them again and I’ve spent $ 1000 there

Straight Razor Designs is an excellent place to buy razors, shaving supplies, and accessories. They have very competitive pricing and they carry very high quality products and some high end brands that I don’t see other US retailers carrying. They have awesome strops and if you buy a straight razor strop kit you are getting an amazing deal. I really like my 3″ English bridle leather strop. It is a beautiful strop and a great value with the kit. I will be buying a silver tip Thater brush in the very near future.
They also have excellent customer service. I am not sure what the other reviewers giving them one star were thinking. I ordered a straight razor kit from them and it came in two days after it shipped and they process orders very quickly. I contacted them for advice on what set up to get and what I liked and they were very helpful. I look forward to doing business with them again!

Worst customer experience I have ever received!

For a Christmas present for myself I wanted to get a straight razor. I felt I did a fair amount of research, tried first with disposable blade Straight razor with good results so I felt I was ready for the real thing.
With the resounding reviews, videos, articles you name it I was convinced I was making a solid choice. I spoke with the a company rep for the best razor for my needs, again. Felt I was making a slam dunk choice.
Then my razor arrived, looked like the razor box was never opened and dull. It failed all the prescribed tests. Figuring I got one that fell the the cracks I contacted the company. Where I was greeted with near insults, that all my perceptions were completely wrong and due to my own ignorance.
After taking this abuse for 10 emails, finally they offered to look at my razor. Which at this point I had little faith I would get an honest and objective opinion of the shave quality of my razor. If they would have offered to look at the razor after my 2^nd or third email, I would have gladly taken them up on their offer.
I instead sent my razor to another hone smith who did put a fairly nice edge on my razor. But still wasn’t I would call shave ready, good but not great. I would send it back to him but at this point I am sick and tired of spending good money after bad.
The company does offer a line of house brand products that are extremely innovative, and well made. Though my strop was very dry and needed to be softened a great deal, but the build quality was outstanding. Also their message board is very informative along with their articles and videos which have greatly enhanced my shaving experience.
I would like to think my experience was unique, and going by all of the rave reviews of this company. I can only assume that mine mine were. I love shaving as a hobby, but this experience has left a bad taste in my mouth.

I just got my ⁵⁄₈ Ralf Aust and Latigo Strop from the website. Good shippping, excellent communication. The quality and condition of the products are beyond reproach. I just had my smoothest SR shave ever and this razor will be my benchmark going forward. For the negative comments below, I don’t see it. Lynn tests his blades on his own face before sending it out (he disinfects it too of course). Many consider him to be the foremost honemeister in the world and quite simply a gentleman.

Read the other comments, and was shocked to see such low reviews.
I’ve ordered several items from Lynn over at Straight Razor Design. I don’t participate in the forum (though I’ll glance at it), and I don’t know Lynn or anyone affiliate with Straight Razor Design.
Every package arrives quick (even with base shipping). The recommend items are way above what you can find around town. I live in Austin, Tx, and we have a lot of boutiques and high end shops but Straight Razor Design is the best place for this kind of stuff.
Sorry the other guys had bad experiences, but I just wanted to share my own.
Highly recommended.
And I would definitely suggest purchasing a Norton 4k/​8k and Naniwa 12K water stone if you want to hone your razor at home. Much better that sending it off to someone and/​or buying a much fancier more expensive razor that will wear the same.

I ordered a «Straight Razor Set (1402)» from Straight Razor Design for $ 213 as a present for my brother-​in-​law. I received all the pieces of the kit EXCEPT the shaving brush. When I emailed the company to ask them about receiving the missing brush, I received the following reply:
«Hello Sir, I am very sorry we our out of the Brush you ordered. We are waiting to hear from Simpson on the time of delivery to us. We will ship your brush to you as soon as they arrive. We are hoping this will be a short delay.
Thank you
Don»
They are «hoping it will be a short delay»??? They shipped the set and charged my credit card for the entire amount even though they apparently KNEW they did not have all the listed pieces. Just to add insult to injury, they didn’t even indicate the brush was missing until I asked about it. That’s just plain unacceptable, and I’m probably going to return the lot.

Let me first say that I hate giving any business a negative review. But when they are as egregious with their behavior as this business has been to me, I feel compelled to caution future customers about them.
I developed an interest in shaving with a straight razor and ordered one from Straight Razor Designs. One of the owners Lynn is held in high repute in many of the forums that I’ve read and I felt as comfortable as I could ordering from them.
I bought a entry level Dovo straight razor and was excited to try it out. I received it in the mail and went to work — an hour shaving at different angles and pressures, no cuts or nicks, and a very suspect shave. In retrospect it’s clear to me that the blade wasn’t appropriately sharp.
I emailed Lynn specifically about my concern and he told me that it was probably my inexperience that was causing such a poor shave. I also shared that I experienced bad water marks on the blade. He advised me not to use alcohol to clean the blade and recommended that I use a polish to get them off. I purchased the polish and the majority of the spots remained. He also recommended a wax that I purchased to keep the blade from tarnishing.
I continued to try and shave with the blade (for half and hour to an hour at a time) until I just gave up on it and set it aside to send to Lynn to be honed (sharpened). When I finally did send it, Lynn sent me a note saying that the blade was significantly damaged and that it appeared that someone else had attempted to hone the blade. When I told him that couldn’t be the case since the blade was in it’s container during the entirety of owning it, he sent this email back to me:
«Hi Jim,
I will be returning the razor to you as it is clear from our communications that we will not be able to meet your expectations here. Your sharpening service fee will be refunded to you.
YOU have significantly damaged this razor and there is nothing else going on here.
Thanks, Lynn»
The issue that I have with Straight Blade Designs is straightforward: their owner says he sent me a good blade, I did nothing to the blade except to «shave,» clean and strop it, and now he says that the blade is damaged.
From my experience I caution any person purchasing from Straight Blade Designs that they won’t remedy their errors. It’s a bit sad that they would resort to suggest that I would do an adjustment to a razor that I have to shave with in order to protect their interests on a $ 150 item.
Clearly you should have some expertise in straight razors before doing business with them, and don’t allow them to delay PayPal or credit card dispute resolution with recommendations to buy a bunch of unnecessary products. I was so caught up in my novice and their «expertise» that I failed to see that their blade wouldn’t cut, and for that I suppose I deserve to be swindled of $ 150.