Thread: Are all SHAVE READY razors the same?

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

Wow this is longer than I imagined.

And worth every word.

An untrustworthy honemeister indeed is a very thrust-worthy person.


Bart.

I see some really good comments up there so I will only add one more too chew on....

It doesn't matter who the honemiester is or how much experiance we might have, any given razor can only get so sharp, period , there is a limit... Given that statement I would say that the more experiance someone has, the more likey that level has been attained... Now comes the smoothness factor .....

The one thing that limits all of the "shave readiness " in the world is that you only have one face to judge your edges on, yep it is that one in the mirror every morning ... So if you can honestly look in the mirror and say, " That the razor shaves nice" , I guess that is as "Shave Ready" as it can possibly be.......

Given a razor you only have two choices to get on it the edge that you'll like the best

1) Learn to hone yourself well enough so that you can put that edge
2) Learn to like somebody else's honing

The skill of the person who hones is far more important than the hones he uses.

As a practical point I'm pretty sure that if you buy 10 of the same razor and have them honed by 10 different experienced members to shave-ready, you will not be able to tell them apart when shaving. Your lack of shaving skill will completely dwarf any differences in the edges.

Originally Posted by gugi

Given a razor you only have two choices to get on it the edge that you'll like the best

1) Learn to hone yourself well enough so that you can put that edge
2) Learn to like somebody else's honing

The skill of the person who hones is far more important than the hones he uses.

As a practical point I'm pretty sure that if you buy 10 of the same razor and have them honed by 10 different experienced members to shave-ready, you will not be able to tell them apart when shaving. Your lack of shaving skill will completely dwarf any differences in the edges.

Good point!

It all depends on your beard. Shave ready for a light beard might be fine but for a coarse beard, not so good. Unfortunately, we have no objective test for sharpness of a razor. All the tests are very subjective so "One man's shave ready is another man's factory edge" to coin a turn of phrase . . . .

I agree with Howard.

A "shave ready" razor, no matter who honed it should be able to be handed to any one of 10 guys with a variety of beard types and skin sensitivities and that "shave ready" razor should be able to complete a shave, period.

NOW.....with that said......all shave ready razors are NOT created equal.

It's been said a thousand times that ultimate sharpness does not necessarily make for ultimate shaving comfort and oftentimes depending on the skill level of the shaver can make for an uncomfortable shave. Phrases like "wipes whiskers off the face", etc can give newbies the false expectation that ALL honemeister razors are going to be or should be "Feather" sharp. I've shaved with two different razors from the same honemeister, and neither razor was "Feather" sharp and both gave comfortable shaves. I have honed razors myself that I prefer over those honemeister edges, but I know MY face and have the time to take to test and fine tune an edge to where I want it to be. IMO it's not possible for a honemeister to nail THE edge that's perfect for each person's face.

Chris L

A man I knew called Swiss Tony* once asked "Beautiful women... are they all the same?"

Of course, no-one on this forum is selling beautiful women, but if they were...






*The Brits on here may spot my blatant lying here.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Make sure it is both "shave ready" and "shave tested". That way it at least passes one persons tests. But... it does not mean it will suit your skin or beard type but it will be close.

Bingo! I have owned shave ready razors by many of the aclaimed honemeisters, honed and sold many myself and contracted out honing on razors when I used to sell them. I would say in almost all cases any that I bought for myself in "shave ready" condition still needed work to shave me properly. All were extremely close but all were better after a little work.

Tony