Thread: Curved Razor Question

Okay my first razor is coming Friday it appears. It appears to have a curved blade (Gold Dollar 208). Does that make the razor directional? What I mean is it looks like shaving with the grain on my left cheek should be pretty simple but against the grain will require reaching across my head and holding it upside down. I guess what I mean is you don't want to flip a curved razor over and use it curve down or does it matter?

Are you referring to a straight with a smile? If I'm understanding your question correctly you can just flip the razor in your hand so that your thumb is on top of the tang instead of on bottom. On another note about half or so of us use our non dominate hand on our non dominate side.

hopefully your gold dollar is up to the task as they are not known for their quality. It will not be shave ready unless the seller has honed it to a satisfactory state of use.

Western style straights are never directional. Japanese traditional razors are directional.Even then most use it as though it was not directional.

When you get your razor you just need to learn facility so you can maneuver it around your face.

It may just be my impression from the pictures. They may be basically straight and if so then my whole question is moot. I will find out Friday but I have no patience. To me in the pictures they look like it is angled or something like an avocado spoon or something.

Cool. That is what I was wondering. That makes a lot of things make a lot more sense. It must just be an illusion of the pictures.

The curve makes shaving on your neck easier! You use the same shaving procedure with it in terms of angle, pressure, etc. Stropping is a little different becasue of the curve, make sure you use a stroke that hits all of the blade.
Can you post a picture?

Yep, I think you are confused by the picture. Be assured that it is curved (hollowed) on both sides. Probably half or full hollow as in the last image. As others have stated it may not perform well unless it has been reworked and honed.





Edit : I see in another post the razor is from whipped dog, you should be good to go.

I think Wirm hit the nail there. I remember looking at pictures of straight razors before I'd ever held one and thing exactly the same - Wirm's picture is a very good example of the visual error.

Yeah, I am getting it from a place that hones them and then resells them. I will want to do some honing eventually (mostly because you can buy unfinished razors a little cheaper and hone them to your specification). I won't have it until Friday but I haven't seen a good end on picture like the diagram of the razor. They look like the picture Wirm posted and to me that looks kind of like a scoop. Even to the point where the logo side to me looks to bend the other way. Still if it isn't directional that will be helpful.

I have one of these. There's nothing directional about it. Both sides of the blade have the same taper/scoop. Look at the diagram below the picture of the straight and imagine you're looking down the blade from the tip. Your Gold Dollar will be half hollow ground. The scoop doesn't matter because you will be keeping the spine of the blade 1/8 to 1/4" away from your face when you shave. (That's 1-2 spine widths away). Generally you won't lay the blade flat against your face.