Straight razor

A reusable shaving tool with a long, exposed blade that folds into its handle. Its edge is maintained by honing and stropping rather than replaced after use.

Razor honing: The abrasive sharpening of a razor blade to restore a keen cutting edge. Honing removes steel to renew the straight razor’s edge when stropping alone no longer suffices.
Bronze Age razors: Early metal shaving tools used in Bronze Age societies, including blades made from copper alloys. These precedents show that shaving tools existed long before the folding steel straight razor.
Razor blade: A cutting blade designed to remove hair close to the skin. The straight razor is a reusable form of the broader shaving-blade tool.
Safety razor: A shaving razor that guards the blade edge with a protective structure, often using replaceable blades. Its guarded edge and replaceable blades reduce the maintenance and handling demands of a straight razor.
Razor strop: A strip of leather or fabric used to realign and polish a razor’s cutting edge. Stropping prepares the blade before shaving and maintains its edge between honing sessions.
Sheffield steel: Steel produced in Sheffield, England, a city renowned for its cutlery and blade-making. Sheffield became a major center for manufacturing the high-quality steel blades used in straight razors.
Honing: The use of abrasives to refine or restore a cutting edge. Razor honing is a specialized application of this general edge-maintenance process.
Shavette: A straight-razor-like shaving tool that holds replaceable blade segments instead of a permanently sharpened blade. A shavette preserves the open-blade form while avoiding honing and stropping.
Shaving angle: The angle at which a razor blade meets the skin and hair during shaving. A shallow, controlled angle helps the straight razor cut hair while limiting irritation and nicks.
Benjamin Huntsman: An English clockmaker and inventor associated with developing crucible steel production in the eighteenth century. Crucible steel improved the quality of blades made in British cutlery centers such as Sheffield.

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