Quote Originally Posted by drmoss_ca View Post
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
Dr. Moss, I see what you're saying but my thoughts are that it might not be that relevant with shaving as all edges are cutting at an angle.

I really do believe that any pulling sensations the straight imparts are from catching the skin pressure. The coating effect is what inoculates modern blades from this and allows greater pressure when shaving.

I wish I could remember the article I read some years back that was a from the early part of the twentieth century where the complaints of early DE users are recorded as being that the DE's are not as sharp as straights and "pull". If this is an accurate reflection my theory is this comes from two things: DE's not being coated at that time and too much pressure when shaving. The DE as well as other more modern blades lend themselves to the temptation of applying pressure (though you're definitely not supposed to with a DE) and many people probably did make that mistake just like straight razor users who have not learned proper technique.

An interesting experiment to test this theory would be for a DE user to get one of those old hones for DE blades off of ebay, hone a blade so that the coatings are removed and then shave with it. It would be ideal if the user was also familiar with straights and could then compare the two.

Regards,
EL