Thread: My razor is too sharp???? I like a duller edge??

I don't like dull. Give me scary sharp. I'm still learning to hone and I want to to really learn to refine an edge as close to perfection as possible.

There's another disadvantage of "too-sharp" edges. The stubble comes back spiky like it does with a DE. Wifey doesn't like that. "Slightly dull" edges produce stubble that comes back softer, not so scratchy.

I have a theory as to why this is, based on the theory of sharpness being a combination of penetrating resistance (determined by the edge width) vs cutting friction (determined by teflon/polish).

Originally Posted by mparker762

There's another disadvantage of "too-sharp" edges. The stubble comes back spiky like it does with a DE. Wifey doesn't like that. "Slightly dull" edges produce stubble that comes back softer, not so scratchy.

I have a theory as to why this is, based on the theory of sharpness being a combination of penetrating resistance (determined by the edge width) vs cutting friction (determined by teflon/polish).

And I thought I was done with this

I absolutely positively disagree here, "for my face" the sharper/smoother the edge the lighter the touch the lighter the touch the smoother the stubble feels growing back... That sharp stubble feeling for me along with the irritation that follows, comes from pressing the edge into the skin and cutting the hair at more of an angle....Or using a not sharp enough blade....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

And I thought I was done with this

I absolutely positively disagree here, "for my face" the sharper/smoother the edge the lighter the touch the lighter the touch the smoother the stubble feels growing back... That sharp stubble feeling for me along with the irritation that follows, comes from pressing the edge into the skin and cutting the hair at more of an angle....Or using a not sharp enough blade....

Do you not get sharp stubble from a DE loaded with feathers?

Pressing in does sharpen the stubble as well, because the hairs are held in place by the skin so the razor cuts them straighter across. A teflon-coated blade produces sharp stubble because the resistance is so low that even without the skin's backing the whisker doesn't deflect much as it's being cut, so it cuts fairly straight across. A highly polished bevel, polished on something like 0.1 micron diamond also produces a sufficiently low resistance that the whisker doesn't deflect much as it's being cut, leaving a chisel edge that feels prickly when it grows back.

A razor that has a very sharp cutting edge in the 0.38 micron range (roughly the minimum that verhoeven found) but high cutting friction will tend to cut into the whisker, but as the blade spreads apart the whisker the resistance rises and unless the skin is taut and the razor is pressing down the whisker starts bending, causing the blade to start cutting diagonally and even splitting it lengthwise. This lowers the cutting friction because the fibrin is much stronger and more elastic along their length, and less between the individual bundles. And it also results in stubble that is softer and thinner at the tip when it eventually grows back.