Böker's been around forever, maintaining Solingen operations for greater than a century.  We opened up the notion of bringing in this brand on our trip to Solingen,...immediately, it is quite apparent that they have superior fit/finish standards versus Dovo or Thiers-Issard.  I can also disclose to you that I personally don't care much about that as long as the razor works, but to each their own; if you want the best workmanship in a blade in terms of pinning, centering, grinding marks, etc etc. and you don't want a 'custom' razor, it is likely true that the Böker brand is the world's best of 'production' razors.

At any experience level, you're doing yourself a disservice if you never endeavor to learn honing.   It certainly is hard with old razors garnered from flea markets, but taking a factory-fresh German razor to brilliantly-comfy shaing condition and keeping it there is easily possible for anyone with a burgeoning interest.  Bear in mind that many who would say otherwise certainly aren't honing used razors sent their way for free (unless perhaps you'd bought it from them in the first place), so a perpetual belief that it is difficult behooves their interests.  At day's end, there's many more complicated things than rubbing a blade on a rock until it is sharp.

We will open up each razor and further hone at no additional charge, and include USPS 1st class mail shipping worldwide, too.

I'm a grown-up, no novice to honing, and think who's-the-sharpest-vendor urinating contests are really stupid.  I really hate spelling this out (prefer understated marketing), but a necessary tacky statement; every Böker razor's professionally honed by me and is absolutely "shave ready"!  The blade you'll receive from this shop's sharp enough to shave wonderfully with any experienced hand-just as it surely is sharp enough to shave poorly with any inexperienced hand for at least the time needed to learn the straight.

To satisfy your curiousity and help you understand the finer points of sharpness, I suggest you perform the 'hanging hair test' before using your razor we've further sharpened; succeeding at it will give you a baseline to compare later after shaving, stropping before the next shave, and honing later in life.  Taking a medium-density hair, holding it with the 'root out', and squeezing it tightly between thumb/index finger, bring down the hair quickly upon the blade edge.  Once you master holding/approaching, it will reliably cut the hair cleanly, quickly, audibly; this is, to me, the minimum standard which assures anyone of at least a good shave.  I've never had a passing razor give a bad shave, nor had a failing razor give a good one.  Between this minimum standard and the greatest shave of your life, the hair will react more quickly, with a higher pitch, and finally, the greatest of all; with no audible sound and no visible 'signature' of the moment of severing, beyond the fact that you can see the hair divided.  Given how easily a beginner can quickly ruin their razor's edge by poor stropping, shaving, beard prep, or combinations thereof, it helps to master this test so that they'll know for sure if they should proceed with their razor as-is.  Furthermore, the full hollow and extra full hollow razors tend to do much better on these tests than do the half-hollow razors, which rather explains my belief that they're not nearly as comfortable of shavers.

Most beginners will find this shaving endeavor a hard thing to master initially, and I'd really consider anything above initial disappointment out of the box the exception rather than the norm.

Here's the general order of operations for the majority of beginners, which has little to nothing to do w/ the blade condition;

1. Get poor, frustrating shaves w/ supplied razor, and finish w/ more familiar methods
2. Gets increasingly better shaves w/ same razor, already a bit less sharp than before from use
3. Really start knowing how to shave, and for once have meaningful certainty that razor itself has become limiting factor to comfort, as opposed to beard prep/technique.

Do yourself a big favor; wait until shaving starts creeping towards second nature before springing for a hone.  This isn't an easy art; you've got to really want to have this labor of love in your life before you'll be any good at it, but it is worth all the bother!

I highly recommend this unassuming-looking sleeve to protect any razor from rust.  It has about as much panache as a '89 Camry, but just like that fine tool the damn thing just works.  Sure beats the hell out of fussing with oil and blades to me.

Like malaria pills, all you've got to do is actually use 'em & you'll have nothing to worry about anymore; they get less oily over time, but that does not affect their capacity for wicking away moisture.  This is an effective anti-rust solution for a lifetime; it is not merely a barrier that prohibits moisture from entering within, but instead a tool which continually draws moisture from the inside to the outside.  Always leave it where it can expunge the moisture to a larger environment, and if those larger environs are as crazy humid (~85% at all times) as a sailboat or rainforest's innards, I'd recommend the extreme step of putting the razors/sleeves in an airtight container with some fresh silica gel packets enclosed within (Ewa Marine's 'CD5' are a very thirsty and reusable desiccant option).

Made by hand in the USA for the firearms industry, the sleeve's based on USA cotton treated with oil and silicone.  There's no need to oil carbon steel kept within; I've used it for a high carbon oldie that I never oil, and I live in a near-constant 70-75% relative humidity environment.  Not a drop of rust anywhere in >3 years.  That's very impressive.  In fact, the makers say to not oil 'em, as this can seal moisture under a film of oil.

This is an excellent, practical travel solution, too.

WARNING:  When you get it, the inner surfaces of this little sock sleeve are much more slippery than, say, a dry terry cloth towel.  It is not intended as a protection tomb from impact, and offers no protection from the laws of physics; this is only a tool to eliminate the risk of rust.  If you forget which end of the sleeve is the open end and expose that open end marginally more towards the center of our earth as opposed to away from it, it is very likely that the razor will fall out of it, possibly damaging you, the razor, or both.  Be careful carrying it around.  I myself have already made this stupid mistake once, but still wouldn't trade these things for the world.  One less thing to worry about.

Note:  $6 USA/Canada & $8 Int'l price is only required if making an order for 1 sleeve, all by its lonesome.  Combine purchase of a sleeve with anything else and use the $4.50 button.  Thanks!

The Böker "Edelweiss" is a full hollow ground 5/8" carbon steel razor with a round point and polished bone scales.  Lovely job they're doing on the bone here; smoother than I've encountered before.  Weight is roughly 49 grams, and it has a 90-year-old design motif on the show side of the blade.

ACTUAL SAMPELS OF STOCK SHOWN BELOW...

The Böker "Tree Brand" is a full hollow ground 5/8" carbon steel razor with a round point and scales made of micarta, a patented process of compressed and laminated canvas.  It is smooth, easy to grab even when wet, and good lookin'.  Weight is roughly 43.5 grams, and it has a "Tree Brand" design motif on the show side of the blade as well as an individual serial number.  OUT OF STOCK

The 4/8" Böker "Extra Hollow Ground" should strike you as a modest razor with a plain little celluloid handle and an unfanciful blade-that's exactly what it is.  But it is a very special blade nonetheless.  It is small (just 32 grams!) and extremely thin ground, much like the Dovo "Prima Klang" and the Thiers-Issard "Evide Sonnant Extra" or "Sheffield Steel" siblings (which functionally are the same, and only differ by polish/handle stock) which I prefer.  I'm not aware of any <5/8" razor beyond this one which is so satisfyingly thinly ground, except for a deceased 4/8" we got once from Solingnen, the Paul Schulze "Extra Feiner Hohlschliff".  It was a better deal buying yesterdecade's leftovers, but they're long gone, or at least the ones which haven't mated to skin yet are.  This is modern time's best emulation of the sorely missed mister Schulze, and in fact the only functional variance that I see/feel (a proud owner of both) is that this one has a 'normal' tang, and not one with file jimps.

I can't tell beginners that these are easy to use-they're probably the worst razor you could pick.  But with experience, give me a little singer to a deserted island with a coticule and scrap of leather and I'll have at least one issue in life solved well.  They're a real maestro's tool.

A true rarity of great production fuss, the 5/8" Böker #140600DAM is a full hollow that's bestowed with powder metallurgical stainless Damascus steel.  I know enough about steel to know this process is a royal pain in the arse, and in this case 180 layers are present on the razor.

The synthetic faux ivory handle's claimed to be a Böker proprietary mix that's flexible, durable, and friendly to water.

Weighs about 43 grams and is a standard full hollow ground round point razor.

I can't deny this thing's totally gorgeous.

Comes with a cool gift box, and they're only making 500 of them for earth.  You'll receive the factory edge here unless you ask me to touch it.