Thread: considering straight razors

Hmmm, I've never seen Kokopelli on a uni-cycle before, let alone an off-road one.


Mick

Welcome! The most growth I have shaved off with a straight is 3 days. From those experiences, I learned that:
A. The blade loads quickly with whiskers and lather, so it needs to be wiped off on my sponge (or rinsed off in water, careful of nicking the blade on the faucet!) much more often, actually after every couple of strokes if you have a long and heavy growth.
B. The strokes need to be short or the blade motion will simply stop, like a sickle that has cut it's maximum amount of weeds per stroke. The problem is that if you force it, you could cut yourself seriously. Answer-short strokes and rinse or wipe the blade very frequently.
C. The blade angle would need to be a little higher than normal if the whiskers were long, IMO, to prevent the blade from hanging up in them, if you tried a nearly flat angle that is what would probably happen.
D. The skin must be stretched for each shaving stroke.

These points work for me, YMMV.

I would add, although this is a matter of preference, that you should go more towards a half hollow or wedge if your beard is very thick. They're more rigid, so I find that they do better with thick beards than a full-hollow.

The winter of 09-10' I grew my beard out VERY big. I kept my neck trimmed up for comfort, but otherwise I completely stopped shaving for about 4 months and looked like grizzly adams.

I hacked it all off when the warmer weather came around with a Frederick Reynolds wedge, and while I had to use short strokes, I didn't actually need to stop to re-lather at all, nor did I have to rinse the blade until there was so much beard and soap on it that I couldn't see what I was doing.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

I would add, although this is a matter of preference, that you should go more towards a half hollow or wedge if your beard is very thick. They're more rigid, so I find that they do better with thick beards than a full-hollow.

Cool. Thanks for the advice. I've ordered an 11/16 CU Day from whippeddog.com. The price was right.

Maybe a wedge for my next one.

It's been stated already, but can never be over emphasized. Don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away. Start with somewhere easy and flat like your cheeks, and be prepared for a learning curve. After a while you will work your way up to chopping off that weeks growth with any razor in your inventory (which you may or may not aquire ). good luck.