Thread: coarse heavy beard & hollow

I Can get great shaves from my hollows, it's not a problem. I think one of the reasons I love using my Joseph Rodgers and Sons 7/8 Wedge so much is because of the age of that particular razor. The fact that it mows down hair easily, for my rush days, doesn't hurt either.

Originally Posted by JohnnyCakeDC

You're right, we're retarted. Klugscheisse

We're not trying to insult you or the other beginners. But the importance of technique must not be underestimated. This isn't like shaving with a DE where you can pretty much top out skill-wise in a month or so. Your skill with a straight will be improving for years to come. Even now I can tell that my technique is still improving, though the rate of improvement has slowed down a bit from that first year.

The "aha" moment with full hollows seems to occur sometime after about a year's worth of daily experience with straights.

I think what happens is that our razors and hones are the two parts of the learning process that we have control over (with sufficient application of $$$) which makes it easy to fall into the trap of attributing our failures and successes on our hones and razors. But just because these are the factors we can adjust to improve our shave doesn't mean that they're the most important factors (or even particularly important at all).

With experience, you'll find that you really don't need those high-grit finishing hones or pastes to shave well. You really don't need those big stiff wedges to shave your uniquely tough beard. You really don't need any sort of elaborate prep to get a good shave. With experience and better mastery of technique you can walk in to the bathroom, brush the lather on your face and grab pretty much any old razor, light, heavy, sharp, dull, and get a good shave with it.

love my hollows now, the auditory feedback alone makes it worth while!

Originally Posted by mparker762

With experience, you'll find that you really don't need those high-grit finishing hones or pastes to shave well. You really don't need those big stiff wedges to shave your uniquely tough beard. You really don't need any sort of elaborate prep to get a good shave. With experience and better mastery of technique you can walk in to the bathroom, brush the lather on your face and grab pretty much any old razor, light, heavy, sharp, dull, and get a good shave with it.

This is a very, very, enlightening statement....

From somebody who shaves with many many different grinds, honestly there is very little difference in hair cutting ability on the blade itself...
The difference is most likely weight and momentum....
Experienced shavers use a very confident stroke so the grind doesn't much matter..the heavier razor gives a newer shaver a more confident stroke by way of the weight and momentum...
If you want to try this theory out just try an 8/8 full hollow, that should be give you the weight to really judge a hollow grind on your beard....
Or just keep slowly expanding your shaving experiences over the next few years....

Now on a personal note I find heavy grinds to be slightly uncomfortable to my face, this might be because I am not used to the weight and tend to let them control the shave somewhat.. That is not the razors fault. that is my fault.....Which I think might be what Mr. Paker was eluding to, that a more experienced shaver tends to blame themselves, and a newer shaver tends to fault the equipment...

Originally Posted by mparker762

With experience, you'll find that you really don't need those high-grit finishing hones or pastes to shave well. You really don't need those big stiff wedges to shave your uniquely tough beard. You really don't need any sort of elaborate prep to get a good shave. With experience and better mastery of technique you can walk in to the bathroom, brush the lather on your face and grab pretty much any old razor, light, heavy, sharp, dull, and get a good shave with it.

I think that he just had a bad day, and my joke was not very smart, either.

Shaving is not rocket science nor a college degree required, it is just wacking off facial hair. Find the razor that works for you and go after it. Juan.

Originally Posted by juannaredo

Shaving is not rocket science nor a college degree required, it is just wacking off facial hair. Find the razor that works for you and go after it. Juan.

Absolutely, that's no doubt an approach, and if I'm not mistaken it's the one you've chosen to take.
However most of us with a bit more experience than you advocate a different approach - get any decent razor and learn to use it.

Your approach requires an investment of thousands of dollars. The alternative doesn't, but it takes a willingness to work on improving oneself.

Yet a third approach which would be cheaper than yours yet a lot more efficient is to get a cosmetic surgery and never have to shave again. However a degree would be advisable for the person who is performing the procedure.

A lot of ways to skin this cat, ain't there....

Originally Posted by gugi

Your approach requires an investment of thousands of dollars.

Well he has bought 30+ new razors from John Crowley in the last few months, so I suspect he's pretty committed to that approach by now.

This little debate got me to thinking of the marketing trends in straight razors. According to Robert Doyle's Collecting Straight Razors by 1870 the hollow ground blade had taken over the market. The large wedge blade was losing popularity and was doomed in 1880 by the development of machine forging and mechanized grinding. Prior to this period, Doyle says, all of these operations were done by hand.

In modern times professional barbers certainly stuck with the full hollow with few exceptions and if you look in old cutlery catalogs from the twentieth century I don't think wedges were to be found. If they were made at all it would've been in the early part of the century. Certainly by the 1920s they were history with few exceptions.

I'm not saying that this was a result of being inferior to shave with but the fact is that they became obsolete. I think the ease of honing a full hollow compared to a wedge had something to do with it and perhaps the wedge was more suited to the hand made rather than the machine made approach ? If you want a meat chopper today you have to have one custom made or find a vintage piece. I enjoy shaving with them and I'm glad that they can still be had but I love my full and quarter hollows too.

YMMV, I think.

Some people like wedges, some people don't. No doubt some people desire them because every one else does, and convinces them selves they're better.

However, the fact is they all cut hair - or they should - equally as well. If you can't get a razor to cut the hair on your face, and some other guy can, it's either not sharp enough or you're doing something wrong.

I'm not saying people shouldn't like wedges, or that they shouldn't prefer to use them, I just believe the key word is different, and not better.