Thread: Parker

All straight razor edges are fragile. Any mishandling of the razor can case I jury or damage to the edge causing a need for rehoning or even restoration if the blade is severly damaged.

Well, easy or difficult will depend on so many individual characteristics, but I am comfortable in saying that it is a learnable skill. If you look through the posts here, you'll see instances where people have quite a bit of difficulty in figuring out the SR. On the other hand, you'll see examples of people that overcome their hang-ups and get it down pretty easily.

Reading the wiki and other info here will ease your learning curve, and I don't think you have anything to lose in giving it a try. Chances are that if you have been doing ok with shavettes, you'll have an idea of what to do.

BTW, can you put up a picture of the straight you have please?

Hello Pietje. I'll let you into a little secret: the idea of using a shavette scares the hell out of me! If you can shave with one of those, then you'll probably get on fine with a conventional straight razor.

What bothers me is the radical difference in edge geometry between a straight (typically an 18-19 degree included cutting angle) and a DE blade, almost always 9.5 degrees or thereabouts. This means that the DE blade encounters less resistance when cutting, so if you nick yourself, it'll go deeper. On top of that there's the difference between a nicely stropped edge and a factory finished honed but unstropped edge: the former has a smoothness which you won't find in any currently made DE blade I know of.

The new skills which you may find harder to pick up are all to do with the maintenance of the razor: first stropping, and later on honing. As other people have said, the wiki is your best resource for information on everything to do with straights.

I also look forward to seeing a picture of your razor, or at least hearing what the maker's mark is. A pre-war date of manufacture is often good news.

I've been shaving with a Parker SRW for 2 weeks now. Came with Shark, used them for a week. Last week with a Feather blade, switched over to a Derby for this week's so we'll find out which one likes my face better. I'll stock up on whichever works best (given that I'll have to give Shark another shot now that I have more experience, I'll know in 2 weeks).

I've only given myself 1 good cut, I've had a number of minor nicks, and it took a couple shaves to figure out the difference between 1 more pass and a little pressure on the 2nd pass. I only had 1 minor nick on sunday's shave, and it was only shave #7.

Take your time, enjoy it. You're going to be doing it for a while, so if it takes you a month to learn there's no big loss.

I have 3 straights off getting repaired and honed, and 1 more coming in from ebay still. I'm seriously considering a DE razor to entirely dump the cartridge razor (I've had the same blade in the schick for 3 weeks, just to clean up the tough spots).

Originally Posted by Arrowhead

Hello Pietje. I'll let you into a little secret: the idea of using a shavette scares the hell out of me! If you can shave with one of those, then you'll probably get on fine with a conventional straight razor.

What bothers me is the radical difference in edge geometry between a straight (typically an 18-19 degree included cutting angle) and a DE blade, almost always 9.5 degrees or thereabouts. This means that the DE blade encounters less resistance when cutting, so if you nick yourself, it'll go deeper. On top of that there's the difference between a nicely stropped edge and a factory finished honed but unstropped edge: the former has a smoothness which you won't find in any currently made DE blade I know of.

If a sharp edge scares you, stay away from high end knives I wouldn't even think of shaving with my latest edge, because I know it'd take skin with it (fillet's letters off of a phonebook page without any issues). I've done touchups at work with my spyderco dragonfly a few times, and a 2" blade sharpened at 12degrees inclusive does quite well.

As long as you watch your angle you can shave with just about anything, size and bevel angle should have no bearing on it.

Originally Posted by vampyrewolf

If a sharp edge scares you, stay away from high end knives I wouldn't even think of shaving with my latest edge, because I know it'd take skin with it (fillet's letters off of a phonebook page without any issues). I've done touchups at work with my spyderco dragonfly a few times, and a 2" blade sharpened at 12degrees inclusive does quite well.

As long as you watch your angle you can shave with just about anything, size and bevel angle should have no bearing on it.

No I'm not particularly scared of sharp edges, I'm fine with a straight razor but I know what my face is like - easily irritated. The 18-19 degree angle is standard for a number of reasons, one of which is edge crumbling, and that really can make for an uncomfortable shave. If you shave with an edge without a safety bar you can pretty much expect the odd nick when your attention gets diverted or you sneeze (!): I'd rather have a cut from a clean smooth edge, that's all.

Your Spyderco has an ATS-55 stainless blade, yes? For much the same reasons I'm not keen on stainless for shaving purposes on account of the larger carbides than are generally found in carbon steels - sharp yes, but less smooth. I was drawn on a bet once by someone who thought I wouldn't shave with a 2" chisel ... it actually did a pretty good job, but then again it was plain old high carbon steel, and about a 20 degree angle.

tl;dr: I think outside of a DE razor, a DE blade is usable but not optimal.

This stainless dragonfly is ats-55, though the stainless handles got upgraded to vg-10 a few years ago... I've been beating on this one for 9 years. If you want a high carbon steel that shaves well, look at vg-10, s30v and the newest addition zdp-189.

vg-10 was designed as a horticultural steel, with a fine grain to limit the damage to the plant being trimmed or transplanted. VG-10, sharpened at 30deg inclusive and finished on veritas green (0.5 micron chromium oxide paste), will shave very nicely.

I sharpen anywhere between 12 and 40degrees inclusive, freehand.