Thread: Sharpness of Straight vs DE & SE

According to Verhoeven "In the absence of burs, the force required to push a knife through a material is dependent on the sharpening angles and the thickness of the knife blade."

Given that a DE blade is much thinner than a straight razor immediately behind the honed edge, this alone could account for the feeling that it is easier to cut with a DE even if the blades are both perfectly honed at the same angles. If one accepts this, it also implies something else, but possibly less welcome - of these two equally sharp blades, the straight, which requires more force to push its edge through the hair, is going to be exerting that force on the hair whilst the edge works through the shaft. That would be perceived by the hair follicle as more tugging than from the thinner DE blade requiring less force to pass through the hair shaft.

At the end of it all, this is interesting but won't change my tool of choice; I like to know when I am being shaved!

Chris