No one in their right state of mind, can not conclude that the communication available today is the single most influential variable that is responsible for the grassroots Straight Shaving movement as pointed out by Lynn and others. Giving that, lets hone in on what is really different about the edges we are creating and back it up with our own discoveries or information and studies of other pioneers in the field.
If you have Leonard Lee's book, read the study that begins on page 233 THE WORK OF DR. MCKENZIE. Why is a wood working article chosen, for protein slicers? What does wood have to do with hair? Well the answer to that for those not familiar with woodworking, this article Mckenzie is using low angle planes cutting end grain. Still confused? No problem, end grain is the fibers of the wood with you looking at them dead on, as if you just chained sawed a tree down and were looking face to face with the stump.
So in effect we are cutting end grain when we shave just like the study. Ok?
Now, the low angle plane blade different than blades set at a higher pitch. They are also called block planes and a low angle block plane without getting to technical could end up with a cutting angle of 27 degrees (bed angle plus bevel for woodworkers) skewing the blade(scything for shavers) lowers the angle even further making cutting or shaving easier. I could go on, but if you already understand the correlation of low angle planes and the Straight have this angle and the worked asked of them have remarkable similarity. (this is why I took an interest in sharpening Straights in the first place, end grain is the beautiful figued wood that can be seen on the back of fiddles and other instruments. Many types of figure in wood is cause by sudden changes in the direction of grain and it is very difficult to work without tearout) p83 Lee's. Many woodworkers reort to sand paper at this point, the better ones IMHO use a blade. Would you get a closer shave with sand paper, perhaps, but look at the collateral damage.
Now back to the Mckenzie study, sorry to drag you through that for folks familiar with wood, but you have to understand this would not be a credible source if you don't agree with and understand the relationship between endgrain and hair, low angle blades and the straight. DE users don't have to feel left out cause they are already shaving with block planes.
Turn to page 234, third paragraph and don't forget this was written in 1995 and the study was done in 1960. lee is comparing the edges level of sharpness of the Mckenzie study to the level of a power tool blade in 1995. Well I don't think you have to wonder too much on this one, how many power tool blades i.e circular saw, drill bits etc would have you arm hairs popping off. I don't think many woodworkers today would have blades that poorly sharpened today.More importantly, Lee's book from the very begining uses the razor p3 as the standard of sharpness for his tools. On the bottom of the page middle parargraphs Lee states "To our surprise and pleasure, we found that a number of our test chisels were in fact sharper than razor blades"
So what do we have in terms of hones that have come out since early to mid 90s. The Arkansas stones were being replaced by Japanese synthetics water stones. There was no 8000 DMT, no Shapton Glass Stones. In fact western honers were very reluctant to move away from oil stones, some still won't. So here is where I will leave off for now and need some help inviting your input as far as what changes mainly synthetic stones have come out since the mid 90s. Also entertaint the drastic changes in hone tech since 1960 where sharp standards were much lower than they were in 1995. How does this relate to what happend to the razor? Again let me remind you of the problematic end grain and that those tools dealing with it need to be as sharp as possible, razor sharp.
Michael