Hi Guys,

After posting the thread on merkurs and if peeps in here use them, i decided, that, because i love shaving and everything associated, i should splash out on one for thoses times when travelling or time is a little short. I bought the merkur in brushed chrome and it looks and shaves like nothing else apart from a straight!

The sideline to this is, that, i pop hairs on my straight most times, but was never really sure how the hair should respond to the edge, ie, how it should look and 'feel'.

So , out of interest i took a merkur blade, and passed a hair over it. It simply fell away, no pop at all. All the way along the edge. No pressure or drag, just a beautiful clean separation. It even sliced one hair through it's length!!! The hairs i used were from my head too, which are heavy and black.

It kinda put what i thought was my sharp straight in a slightly lower league to the merkur. I was glad though, because it inspired me to achieve the same results with my straight as the merkur.

I decided to hit the strop. I held the strop very taught and did cycles of 50. Now after the first lot, i noticed a big improvement. I went for it again, and i am there. The hanging hair test is how i think it is intended to be. (plain strop by the way, no pastes) I think my stropping was always cut short through fear of over stropping?! but this showed i needed to go that bit further.

I haven't shaved with it yet, and i'm aware the hanging hair test doesn't mean a great shave but i reckon there will be a marked improvement, just by the way the hair stays on the blade when separated, it no longer jumps or twitches.

Comments would be appreciated!! (i'll let you know how the shave is too!)

By the way, the whole point of this, was, it might be good for other newbies to buy a pack of blades to SEE the hair test, rather than just build a mental image of how it should happen?!