I must be insane

Who in their right mind, takes a tool sharp enough to perform precise surgery within an inch of your life, no within a micron of your life and shave with it. Apparently a lot of us do every day. This is a tool that has taken the whole history of mankind to develop a rock as a tool to a blade thinner than a piece of paper that will shave you a life time with a little honeing and stropping. The design is basic, a blade and scales. But it takes more than a chunck of metal and a hammer to make this tool. The skills, knowledge and intelligence it takes to forge, grind, hone and even shave with this tool is more complex than a blade and scales. Imagine what is coming, a straight razor made from ceramic or composite materials once honed it might become maintenance free? No more honeing, no more stropping, no more cleaning, no more stains, no more rust, no more polishing, no more oiling and no more maintenance. For me, I rather hone it, stropp it, clean it, polish it, oil it and maintain it. We all just enjoy that. Juan

I don't think you're insane at all! There's something very simple about the idea of a straight razor: a clean piece of metal sharpened. I know it's not simple at all to make the razor, but I like the simplicity of the idea, just a piece of metal. You know what I mean?

And I agree about the maintanence, it's part of the fun! For me shaving is only a small part of the hobby. I really enjoyed sanding and polishing a few blades that I got cheap off of ebay. It's more the journey than the destination.

Plus, if there was no need for honing/stropping and such, I wouldn't have an excuse to have a growing collection of stones!

No that's not insane one bit!

Sharp steel is fun.

But who are we kidding...this stuff is just cool to begin with! :rock:

We all got into SR for different reasons but at the end of the day, the undeniable fact remains:

It's cool.

Since I've gotten into it my friends seem strangely drawn to it but still too afraid to ask about it. :cool:

You're asking the inmates about sanity vs insanity.

Insane? Uh...have you seen the thread about "shaving one's 'nads"? :)