Thread: Enquirer with Tough Beard

Originally Posted by syslight

Don,
you do realize that once you start using the straightrazor... one day you will wake up and say... Beard be gone! i like shaving to much to waste valuable fabe space with you.

and you will take your freshly stropped blade and rid yourself of the beard.

That may be so, but my outdoors personality makes me more of beard man than a fully shaved man, despite my 25 years of full shaving most of my life. We'll see if straight shaving makes me a fan of shaving. I've hated shaving most of my life and part of my hate for it is the waste of buying cheap (but expensive!) safetys and throwing them away each week. Right now I figure that if I even if I buy a complete straight razor set including a stone, I will spend less on that than I do with disposable saftetys each year!


But I'm keeping an open mind and would like to be pleasantly surprised.

Don

Originally Posted by gugi

Well, as you're an engineer you've probably figured out that given the same edge sharpness the main differences between hollow and a wedge are the flexibility of the edge and the mass, a.k.a. inertia

Yes, I understand there is more inertia due to the increased amount of material making contact with the stone.

I am hoping that my years of experience honing hunting and chef's knives will help me make the transition to honing a straight razor. The other day I took one of my Old Hickory butcher knives that I had just touched up with a few strokes on the steel and was able to pop some hair off my arm, although it would still be far too dull to use for shaving.

Oh, I'm sorry for confusing you if I did, I didn't mean inertia while honing, although it should be helpful with that too, but I haven't honed a wedge.
I meant the inertia while shaving and the extra mass helps with that.
I think what's important is what you like when shaving, and shouldn't worry about the honing too much. If you like wedges better, I'm sure you'll be happy to spend the extra time honing a wedge.
It's too bad many recent threads are gone, but you can probably look through the history of the forum. I seem to remember that the recommendation of people who could hone knives is to pretend you don't know how to hone when you try to hone a razor and just follow the directions - uniform and consistent strokes at 45deg angle and no pressure, except the weight of the razor. Keeping uniform pressure througout the stroke seems easier if you angle the blade (heel leading) and move it parallel to the hone, instead of having it perpendicularly and moving it at an angle, although the honemeisters do the later. Not sure what is the reason, but there is one, may be holding the razor by hand at the tang distributes the pressure more towards the heel, and honing diagonally can compensate it by leaving the heel less time on the hone. That's just a speculation though.

If I were you I'd buy a prehoned shave-ready razor, even if it's just to have a benchmark. There's a learning curve just to the shaving technique, I don't see a reason to add to it another learning curve from honing. Tackling one specific task at a time is the best way to go.

Of the skill set required for a Str8 razor, honing is the most difficult to learn.

I would suggest purchasing a honed and shave tested razor from the B/S/T forum first. Then start reading up on honing a Str8 and practicing with an Ebay junker. We have many "knife" people here who have learned that a Str8 is a different animal to sharpen. Not all of the knife skills will transfer.

You might want to contact an SRP member named "Sticky" by PM and ask him about the differences. Others will chime in here I am sure.

Originally Posted by presbyreformed

Before the database crash, I was talking about how tough my beard is. Someone suggested that I may want to try using a "wedge" or something other than a "full hollow" razor.
...

My beard has always been coarse, and the addition of many white/gray hairs has made it even tougher. One of my favorite razors is a full hollow. With that said I have developed a preference for wedges or at least a half hollow. Strong nod to the wedge. I do believe a sharp tool and good prep is more important than the grind.

Originally Posted by presbyreformed

...
I am hoping that my years of experience honing hunting and chef's knives will help me make the transition to honing a straight razor. The other day I took one of my Old Hickory butcher knives that I had just touched up with a few strokes on the steel and was able to pop some hair off my arm, although it would still be far too dull to use for shaving.

Honing knives, especially if you do it freehand (no jig like Lansky's or DMT's), will give you a slight head start for feeling the hones working the cutting edge of a razor. The main habits to learn (for me) was the very light touch and keeping the spine on the hone. Think "different mind set".

Good Luck,