Thread: razor rest

This really sounds like a wives tale. This is steel - it isn't getting any harder on its own just sitting around. I would venture a guess that having multiple razors came more from needing to get them honed less often - especially with no reliable shipping, and a potentially far away barber. I would love to see a technical explanation if someone knows something I don't

Professional Barbers used to shave many people in the same day with the same razor so I think that "razor resting" is a myth spread by razor manufacturers to sell more razors. Just let the razor rest enough for your hair to grow back, that is long enough.

oh crap... you mean I've been fueling my RAD with misinformation ???!!! I've been justifying my purchases to my wife that I neeed at least 7 . One for each day cause I couldn't use the same razor for atleast a week...

Originally Posted by justchillin

oh crap... you mean I've been fueling my RAD with misinformation ???!!! I've been justifying my purchases to my wife that I neeed at least 7 . One for each day cause I couldn't use the same razor for atleast a week...

I won't tell if you dont

I have a book (in Dutch) about straight razor shaving. The author presents the following theory. I'm contributing this for what it's worth, being not versed enough in metallurgical physics to confirm any of it.

The very edge of the cutting bevel of a razor can be compared to a very thin foil of metal. He calls it the "fin". That fin becomes out of alignment due to the impact with beard hairs. The fact that we need to hold the razor at a angle while shaving in order to shave close enough to the skin puts extra stress at the fin. In consequence it bends to some extent. As if it was wrinkled. A razor's steel is not a plastic material, it has some memory for its original shape. Imagine the translucent wrap from a cigarette box. If you compress it and throw it on the table, you can easily witness how it tries to unfold itself, trying to reach its original state. Same thing happens to the fin of a razor. Now, imagine that you were straightening out the cigarette box wrap with your hands. The wrinkles would disappear even further. Same thing happens when we strop on canvas. No metal is removed, the fin just becomes realigned. There is A RISK that, when we use the strop before the blade had the chance to realign itself enough, that the parts of the fin that are the most off axis simply break away. (Are those the so often discussed micro-chips?). Imagine that we would take a hot iron and use that to straighten out the cigarette box wrap. That would actively reshape the wrinkles to a flat area. The author compares this to a leather strop. Again, no metal is removed (as opposed to using a hone or a pasted strop), the fin is just "ironed" into alignment again. The reason for stropping on canvas, before leather, is that if a little piece of the fin would break away it would be safely embedded in the fabric of the canvas. If that would happen on leather, the little metal part could get stuck in the leather surface and cause further damage to the fin during the subsequent passes. Therefor the author recommends a blade rest of at least 24 and preferably 48 hours.

I'm not sure myself if all this is true. Some of it makes sense to me. I also think that the grind of the razor would be a very contributing factor. With a wedge there's a lot of steel to support the "fin". With a full hollow it really is not much more than a thin foil.
Maybe allowing the blade to rest would elongate the typical time before rehoning is needed?
I am not sure that barbers used the same razor for a whole day. Maybe, if so, they needed to do a daily touch up on the barber hones?
I 've been talking to a retired barber that told me most customers had their own private razor, that was kept in the shop in a large cabinet with countless little drawers. The barber had a few additional razors that he used on customers that couldn't (or wouldn't) afford to buy their own. This represents the typical barber-store in Belgium between 1920 and 1970.

Hope to have added to the discussion,
Bart.

Thanks for the expert quote. It will at least justify buying more razors when the wife complains.

Originally Posted by craig

Thanks for the expert quote. It will at least justify buying more razors when the wife complains.

you're welcome. Glad I could be of assistance...

Bart.

I read something the other day that took this theory to the extreme.

Went something along the line of the edge being so thin and mellable that it is susceptible to magnet influences. While the razor is resting it should be stored in a north south orientation so that the earths magnetic field will help the edge realign.

All I can say is the my razor will not be stored in a north south orientation.

Originally Posted by The Kiwi

I read something the other day that took this theory to the extreme.

Went something along the line of the edge being so thin and mellable that it is susceptible to magnet influences. While the razor is resting it should be stored in a north south orientation so that the earths magnetic field will help the edge realign.

All I can say is the my razor will not be stored in a north south orientation.

There is actually a german device, a "magnetic stropper" , for cartridge razors that uses magnetism to re-align the micro fractures to the edge.

Blademaster (The english link doesn't seem to work, but I guess you get the idea from the pics if you don't understand german)


Google for Blademaster

Originally Posted by The Kiwi

I read something the other day that took this theory to the extreme.

Went something along the line of the edge being so thin and mellable that it is susceptible to magnet influences. While the razor is resting it should be stored in a north south orientation so that the earths magnetic field will help the edge realign.

All I can say is the my razor will not be stored in a north south orientation.

You should only shave during a rising moon, while humming a continuous low C-tone. The sonic vibrations will travel through your jaw bone into your skin and give you the smoothest shave ever, even if you were using a butter knife. Where do you think gillette got the idea of their vibrating "Fusion"razors?