High Proof Razor

High Proof Razor is an American grooming-hardware company that designs and machines single-blade metal safety razors in Montana. It now trades mainly as Proof, or Proof Razor, selling its tools directly online under the line "American-Made Lifelong Grooming Supplies" [1]. The name reaches back to the first product: the original razor was the "High Proof" model, sold through an earlier highproofrazor.com storefront before the brand consolidated around proofrazor.com [6].

The company grew out of a personal project by David Ellig, who wanted to build a razor he would use himself, and was later joined by Andy Auble, who saw wider demand for it [2]. The brand is active, with new product launches and posts published through 2026 [5].

According to the company, the first Proof razor began as "a passion project for David Ellig, a razor that he personally wanted to make, own and use" [2]. Ellig had spent time helping develop an automated robotic CNC manufacturing cell — machinery the company says lets a small workshop prototype and produce machined parts in small batches [6]. He made a handful of razors for friends, and one of them, Andy Auble, argued the design deserved a wider audience. That collaboration turned a one-off tool into a company.

The founders frame the operation as a deliberately small one. In its own words, the goal is "to show that it's possible for two guys in a garage in the middle of nowhere Montana to make a globally relevant product" [2]. The company presents its small-batch automation as a way to tailor tools to the end user rather than, as it puts it, produce "one-size-fits-all, wasteful plastic junk."

The core range is a set of single-blade safety razors. The flagship is the Select 2.0, described as the model that "put Proof on the map"; it was first sold under the name "the Whiskey" before being renamed [4]. Alongside it sit the Benchmark 2.0, the Reserve 2.0, a single-blade straight razor, and packs of American-made replacement blades. The razors are machined from solid aluminum, with a stainless-steel core in the Select to shift the balance forward, and they ship with a hand-sewn American bison leather case.

Rather than proprietary cartridges, the razors take standard single-edge blades — or a double-edge blade snapped in half — which the company notes are sold in most drugstores. A pivoting head is the signature design element; the brand markets it as combining "the closeness of a safety razor with the ease of a cartridge razor." An independent review by the wet-shaving site Sharpologist noted that the updated model moved from the magnet-based pivot of the original to a spring-based mechanism, and weighed slightly more than the earlier razor [6].

Proof positions its razors against disposable multi-blade cartridges. The company argues that single blades cut hair cleanly at the surface, while multi-blade systems pull and cut hair below the skin, causing irritation and ingrown hairs. Its selling points are repeated plainly: no cartridges, no subscriptions, and no proprietary refills. The tools are built from solid metal with, in the brand's framing, "the purposeful intent of lasting a lifetime" [3], and each razor carries a lifetime manufacturing warranty [4].

Sharpologist placed the razor among single-blade tools "aimed squarely at the cartridge razor consumer looking to get out of the 'walled garden' of patented multi-blade cartridge designs and willing to pay a bit more for it" [6] — a reading that matches the company's own emphasis on long-term blade cost over the price of the handle.

Domestic sourcing is central to how the company describes itself. It points to "an all-American supply chain: solid metal from the west coast, leather from the midwest, and machining and sewing in Montana" [3]. Brass and aluminum come from partners in Washington and elsewhere in the United States; bison leather for the cases is cut from a Midwest tannery; and the razors are designed, machined, assembled, polished, and the cases sewn by the team in southwestern Montana.

The brand remains active. It launched the Select 2.0 single-blade razor in 2026 and continued publishing to its blog into that year, including an April 2026 interview with a domestic-manufacturing partner [5]. Its products are sold directly online, with shipping options listed for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.