Dont plan on shaving with it....
I give it 2 stars simply as a novelty or if you plan to use it as cutting utensil and not actually planning on shaving with it. For a straight razor its unfortunately terrible. It came sharp but not shave ready. When I attempted to hone the blade I found some small deflections in the precision of the blade shape around heel and shoulder not allowing for it to evenly touch the stone, which you know is critical to reach that shave ready sharpness. With determination I was able to reach razor sharpness, lots of determinations...shoulder and heel had to be ground way down to match edge geometry. Next issue and biggest deal breaker fro me....there is an over travel pin embedded in the scales about 1 cm down from the pivot pin. This blocks the tail and thus prevents the razor from opening beyond 180 degrees, it stops like a standard pocket knife as if by some odd design feature. This pin is fully embedded in the scales and unseen in the pictures, you'd have to fully disassemble or snip out with wire cutters to correct this flaw. Bottom line, I know I am being highly critical given the price point but its advertised as a budget starting point for straight razor shaving; I just don't see that as possible with this razors quality and design. To end positive, the pouch it came in is actually quite nice! Read more