Thread: New Straight on its Way!

Originally Posted by Redcane

Outback, I can't find it but I am almost positive Lynn said you could still get a comfortable shave from it. He just spoke about this a couple days ago. i certainly don't want to put words in his mouth but I would hate to see him ruin the edge before he put it to his face. Maybe Lynn can chime in for us.

If Lynn honed it, you probably can.
But I know he said they dont strop anymore. Used too, but not anymore

If you read the first page of THIS thread, you will get the answer. I think it is post 7 in which Lynn explains the reason for the change in SRD's instructions that now suggest that the blade be wiped off and then stropped.

In my opinion it was due to too many people not following instructions and insisting on testing their razors without having any idea how to actually accomplish such a test.

Here's a reminder for beginners: The Hanging Hair Test is meaningless in the hands of beginners and no blade with oil on it will cut a hanging hair.

Yep.. Thats where I got my info on the question

The Aust is a great choice, you will be thrilled with it! Welcome to the forum

While you are waiting for your blades, do some stropping practice with a butter knife or other dull razor shaped object. You will develop some muscle memory without cutting your strop

Originally Posted by Phil129

I just got my Ralf Aust 5/8 from SRD a few weeks ago and man was that edge nice. Had such a great shave that morning, Lynn does an awesome job.

You are really making me anxious! I have the same Ralf Aust blade on order and will be driving to SRD/Imperial Shaving to pick it up, along with an English Bridle strop, this coming Saturday. And this post is also making me wish today was Saturday!

Originally Posted by rodb

While you are waiting for your blades, do some stropping practice with a butter knife or other dull razor shaped object. You will develop some muscle memory without cutting your strop

I've been using my shavette, both empty and loaded, across an old leather belt for stropping practice. I think that will be a big benefit to me when it comes time to strop for real.

Originally Posted by Utopian

If you read the first page of THIS thread, you will get the answer. I think it is post 7 in which Lynn explains the reason for the change in SRD's instructions that now suggest that the blade be wiped off and then stropped.

In my opinion it was due to too many people not following instructions and insisting on testing their razors without having any idea how to actually accomplish such a test.

Here's a reminder for beginners: The Hanging Hair Test is meaningless in the hands of beginners and no blade with oil on it will cut a hanging hair.

If you don't mind, which test, in your opinion, is appropriate for beginners?

kind regards,

Sure! That's easy. For someone who does not hone yet, who simply is starting out with a razor honed by somone else, the best test is absolutely no test but the shave test.

Testing is a way to assess the honing, and whoever did the honing already did his assessment. ALL you need to do with the razor is to shave with it.

After all, if you are new to straight razors, you don't know what you are doing anyway, so don't go beyond the shave test. If the shave goes badly, reconsider your technique and try again. If it still doesn't work, consider your stropping. Only then should you consider the honing to be at fault. Ideally you would test your shaving and stropping with a second razor as the odds of both being badly honed are pretty low if you got them from two different places.

Really it comes down to getting your razor from a trusted source.

There really is only on test for a blade that counts and that is the shave test. Even with a perfectly fine edge beginners can have a bad shave because of their lack of shaving technique. Been there done that but they had no T-Shirts.

Any test you would use may or may not indicate how shave ready a blade is because as a beginner you have not learned to read what the test is telling you or not. Eventually you get enough experience to be able read what a test says, more or less.

Bob