Thiers Issard 188 Spartacus 6/8" Straight Razor Made France Mother of Pearl

Description: Premium 6/8" straight razor handmade in France. Carbon steel. Extra full hollow ground. Includes leather sheath. You can pick which "specimen" you'd like from the "police lineup" shots and you'll get that exact piece! As special as anything we could acquire today given the tremendous scarcity of the handle material, this Thiers-Issard ‘Spartacus’ variant has a hand-filed spine, a gold-gilded back, and a handle made, in part, from genuine mother-of-pearl. This business has been in operation now over fourteen years, and this is the first time we could acquire new-make handles containing any actual MOP (pinctada maxima). There is a liner layer present to protect the delicate shells, but the shells’ portion is better than 2mm thick, on a total scale thickness of ~3.3mm…2-2.3mm was ultimately judged just a bit too thin to be safe without a liner, given that none of the shells are a complete fill-up of the scale geography; they're close, and their joinery is impeccable work, but these are scales made in part from assemblages of pictada maxima, bonded to a resin base. They’re stunning. Together with the liners, these razors come in at a quite hefty seventy-two grams each weight, and they’re nearly as big as a 7/8″ TI. If you have large strong hands you’ll love it. It is a beefy 6/8" razor. In the late 1990s and in to the 2000s, the commercial use of cutlery handles in MOP from the one region where they are commercially farmed for this purpose were ‘over fished’, leading to plenty of shell stock but all of it small. You’d need four or five pieces left to right to make one side of a razor. It takes the species generations left to their own devices to grow to lengthen their average span. So, the country that controls this commercial trade for the EU’s cutlers (Indonesia) parked production for the long term gain - it was still available in smaller quantities for things like cufflinks or little pocket knives or other smaller objects, but not for knife or razor handles of substantial length. Now, here we are. You can see from the stock here that, indeed, rare is any panel without 2+ shells at a time per side, but their ability to make those seams aesthetically pleasing is, well, remarkable. To make it easier to move these things through the world, TI’s done a bit of careful order-of-wording on the packaging and invoicing, which says …’MOTHER OF PEARL RESIN IMITATION…’ just like that, but rest assured, the scale has pinctada maxima along the outer 2+mm with a resin lining (meant to, wink wink, imitate a mother of pearl!) It would be cooler if they were no-liner, no-seam, no glazing, but MOP is fragile stuff, and the uncompromising beauty of the material and its special iridescence is still here. Parlaying the extreme demand for such a special thing, Thiers-Issard isn’t going to let you buy these handles on something cheaper like a “Le Grelot” or “Evide Sonnant Extra”; it will be cordoned off in the VIP lounge, and thus herewith we have a gold-themed ‘Spartacus’ trademark with matching gold gilding on the spine, which has been hand filed in the “motif feston long” physical pattern. (“275” = both sides matte, “889” = one side brightly polished, “188” = both sides brightly polished). File jimps – those little ridges provided for an enhanced grip – are present upon the tang. If you would like to have your razor further honed post-factory by The Superior Shave, please indicate in a "note to seller" or message.

Price: 489 USD

Location: Jacksonville, Florida

End Time: 2024-09-13T19:18:29.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD