Shavette vs Straight Razor

[YoYoHenry]

Hi everyone,
I’m new to the straight razors. I currently have a Dovo Bismarck and a cheap eBay shavette. My question is, will a straight razor be as sharp as a shavette? I can’t get it close at the moment.

I’m honing with a 3,000~8,000 whet stone and a thiers issard double sided paddle strop.

Any help or information would be appreciated. I’m really curious if the straight blades get that sharp?

Regards
YoYoHenry

[BobH]

If your experience honing straight razors matches your forum join date you may not be getting all that is possible in sharpness from the razor. As far as comparing a straight razor to a shavette I'm no help there never having used a shavette.

Bob

[markbignosekelly]

Welcome to SRP!

DE or SE used in shavettes are machine made whilst straight razors are hand made, I do not believe a straight razor can be as sharp. I do however believe that you can get just as close a shave. For me a well honed straight razor is far more comfortable too.
It also comes down to the hand honing the razor as to its sharpness.

It will take a while to get the hang of using a straight, I see you are taking a lot on in one go, learning to hone, strop and getting shaving technique down is a tall order.
May I suggest you have your razor honed by a professional, you will then have a base point to go by.

Read through the library too Shave Library
It is a wealth of information and will set you on the right path.

Mark

[RayClem]

A shavette blade is designed to be replaced every few shaves, so it is designed to be sharp and then coatings may be used to make it smoother. With a straight razor, we have to make the edge, yet smooth and it needs to last a lifetime or longer. We may not be able to get it quite as sharp as a machine make blade.

If you want a straight razor to have an edge nearly as sharp as a shavette blade, you are going to need to use something finer than an 8K stone as a finisher. Although some people can shave off an 8K edge, most people use either synthetic or natural stones that are 12K or finer.

Another option is to use very fine abrasives such as Chromium Oxide, Cubic Boron Nitride, Cerium Oxide, or Diamond sprays and pastes on a strop to refine the edge you get off your stones.






Then some people further refine their edges with pasted strops. I have been using 0.5 micron CBN and 0.25 micron CBN and recently added 0.1 micron CBN to get really sharp, yet smooth edges. CBN is Cubic Boron Nitride, an abrasive that is nearly as hard as diamond, but which has a crystal shape that seems to be less harsh than diamond when used on steel edges.

[ejmolitor37]

Welcome, This is my opinion on the subject so take it how you like
Shavettes use disposable blades as already stated. The blades used in a shavette is manufactured, they are super thin, they have multiple bevels usually around 3. It is my belief that its difficult to say whether a SR and a shavette can be the same level of sharp. Really we are not comparing apples to apples. We have 2 different blade designs, the blade used for a shavette is super thin hence the need for multiple bevels. The multiple bevels are there to give the edge support, with out these bevels the edge would likely crumble as soon as it touched a wisker.
SR has a very fine single bevel with the support of the hollow grind so while the edge of a SR is thin, it is not as thin as the blades used for a shavette.
Now, a lot of can a SR be as sharp as a shavette? comes down to a couple things, technique and honing. You can have the sharpest SR ever but if you don't have the technique it will not seem to do what you want. Secondly, as stated above, a properly honed 8k edge is a great edge, if done correctly. They can produce a close, comfortable shave. Is it as sharp as a shavette? I would doubt that, A 12k edge is a fantastic edge and produces a killer edge IMO, I have never went above that level because I don't feel the need to. But I would say a 12k edge done right is probably close to the sharp level of a shavette, close But again with out technique it does not matter how high it was honed or whom it was honed by. There is a pretty good learning curve to honing, especially if you are teaching yourself. That is how I did it and it took me awhile to finally realize what I needed to do, little ah ha moments.
So, prep, face stretching, technique all play a big part in what shaves like what. DE blades are just crazy sharp there is no doubt but is a SR edge to match obtainable? I don't know, but getting the same quality of shave is obtainable, plus SR's are more forgiving than shavettes. Once the moons align and everything comes together you wont bother with your shavette any more.

[YoYoHenry]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
It looks like I’m needing a 12K stone. We don’t really have anyone here in Sydney, Australia who I can find that hones straights so I will be continuing with the wiki tutorials.