Thread: Why Rotate?

Originally Posted by Mudkipz

That's like walking into a Shieks palace and asking "why the harem?"

The economy, if you only use one razor, there will be millions of unemployed steel workers and related industires workers rioting in the streets of Europe. The world as we know it will collaps, you want that to happen, By rotation we prevent the end of the world. Juan.

I am not real sure why one rotates between straight razors myself either, but in the double edge world I rotate blades because each double edge has a different touch so its a great idea to roate them to get the best of all possible worlds.

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I am not real sure why one rotates between straight razors myself either, but in the double edge world I rotate blades because each souble edge has a different touch so its a great idea to roate them to get the best of all possible worlds.

Same thing with str8's each blade has it own unique character. Like people no two blades are alike. It's nice to have choices.

Well I don't own any hones (yet) or know how to hone a razor (yet), so one reazon I rotate is to maximize the amount of time before a razor will need to be honed. Also when I first got into this, I read a lot about allowing an edge to "rest" at least 24 hours between shaves; opinions vary, but it was a good excuse to buy multiple razors in a short period of time.

I suppose there are two camps-- those that would ultimately use a 7 day set, rotating with the same type of razor (marked, "Monday", "Tuesday", etc), and those that rotate across different types of razors. I'm in the latter camp-- 3 razors with different grinds. (note, conspicuously missing is the "I only have 1 razor camp"-- those seem to be a rare breed...)

-Chief

I currently only use one razor. I did an experiment. If you let it rest it actually doe sseem to help. My experiment was as follows:
1 week, shave every day, strop every day, setting a benchmark. 1 week, shave every day, don't strop ever. Ouch. So I determined the obvious. 1 week, shave every day, strop every day (reset the benchmark in case it changed). 1 week, shave every other day, strop before each shave, no difference. 1 week, shave every other day, don't strop ever. Workable, but it got worse towards the third shave. Reset benchmark for a week. Next phase is shave only once its really needed (SWMBO insists) +/- 4 days, never strop. Tomorrow will be my fourth shave like that. I think so far I'd still rather strop, but the edge was still pretty good two days ago...

ANYWAY. YMMV.

Dovo says, and I think, that because of steels elastic properties (see springs) so long as the force exerted on it does not exceed yield pressure steel will return to its original shape, so long it has been "work hardened" which hopefully your razor company took care of with tempering. Now how fast this happens is probably up for debate, and I'm willing to bet that thicker beards may cross the yield pressure threshold (remember, pressure= force/area, so while theres not much force, theres a tiny tiny area...) and there are other factors, but if you're lucky you may not have to hone/strop as much if you let up on your shaves. I personally have a very light beard so goign a day or two without shaving is not bad, and I doubt I'm stressing my edge on my light bear so... I guess I'm lucky. But I'm still gonna stick with stropping even though I'll be shaving every other day (I do believe in resting the edge). But... I should have more shave ready razors soon, so then I can rotate!!! :-P

I rotate my Razors for the same reasons I rotate my shoes. I have my favorites, but a rotation keeps them all from crapping out quick. Dig?

I have multiple straights that I bought so I could rotate them... I still find myself using only one straight! My opinion is: No matter how often I hit the hones, barber hone, strop, the blade will still outlive me by far even if I live to be 110 years old. I'm not going to stress out about wearing through a razor and letting it rest 24 hrs and what not. To each his own. Different things work for different peeps so what matters is, do what works for you and enjoy this wonderful thing we do!

It's hard for me to give just one answer. The main reason I rotate now is that I have developed a case of RAD, and I would feel terrible if I spent the money on a razor and didn't use it.

However, there are other reason that aside from this. One of them is the fact that I do not have to hone my razors as much. Now I don't believe that if I was just using one razor that it would wear out or anything, but I have a reasonably heavy beard, and it's nice not to have to hone so often. I also like to use different razors because it's a preference issue. I have different grinds, different widths, and they all feel different. Some days I feel like one over the other. For example, you could wear one shirt all the time and jsut wash it each night, but it's nice to have variety.... plus I'm to lazy to do laundry every night.

Besides, how can I look forward to my favorite razor coming up in the rotation if i only have one.