Thread: When shave testing to evaluate a razor isn't an ideal answer.

What is the shave test????

This has been written a few times but it never hurts to post it again...

Don't confuse the shave test with shaving, a shave test is just that, it is designed to test a blade... Starting with the absolute best prep you can muster up, using the best lather you can make... Wet the face well, we call it wet shaving for a reason, then lather the dominant side of your face as perfectly as you can, let it sit, wait, wait, wait, about 2-3 whole minutes, now with a hot wet wash cloth apply that over the lather... Leave it there until it cools... Re-wet the face, yes it should be dripping, re-lather that side, now with as perfect a stroke as you can possible manage, concentrating on the perfect angle, (two spine width from the face) do one stroke from sideburn line to jaw line as perfectly smooth as you can... That is a shave test now concentrate and try the other side...

What I just wrote is for beginners, if you were honing you own blades and a bit more advanced then this changes to a bit more of a challenging test

I didn't even know I had a dominant side of my face!

Originally Posted by MikeMN

Somebody on another thread wrote:

This has me thinking. How do you know a razor is sharp? Shave test it, is what I read. Easy to say, when you know how to shave. But how can you rule out the razor when you are not yet confident in your shave?

Ideally, I'd like to have an objective way to know if my razor is sharp enough. The hanging hair test looked promising, until I brought it up.

So, should a straigh razor be as sharp as say a feather platinum coated blade? Or sharper? Because the feathers don't even pass the 1/2" hanging hair test (at least it didn't for me). And neither does my razor.

So, I think we need a way, in general, other than a shave test, to objectively determine if the razor is good for beginners.

Good question.....
Learning what is dull is just as hard as learning what is sharp.

I suspect the easy way to learn is with a double edge or
even some good tossable blades.

First a blade from Feather is sharp. They are so sharp
that I dislike them for the first day shave. Each shave
that follows the blade gets duller -- eventually ya
have to toss it. The HHT works for some and not for
others.... since it is what it is you have to learn differently.

With an adjustable double edge you can explore the
effect of angle on shaving to some degree.

For cost saving....
I would suggest investing three bucks in a bag of
BiC yellow handle or the newer BiC Metal tossable
razors. Shave with one as many days in a row
as you can.. that will teach you what dull is.

These two flavors of BiC tossables are not the best edge but they
are OK for this project.

They provide a constant reference to allow the evaluation of
soaps lathers and are 'mild' enough to be used while angry
skin heals.

They are also good to practice a light touch. Just hold with
two fingers at the very end of the handle. A two finger grip
can make it hard to apply pressure the way a death grip full
on fist grip does.

In the world of open razors, the touchstone I have used is the
Feather Professional "Artist Club RG" Razor. It is too expensive
for me to recommend it but it will teach you a lot about shaving
with an open razor blade if you can beg or borrow one. They
ship three different blades for it. I will leave it as an exercise
why that is important but all three are equally sharp.

While expensive a $25 box of blades for a Feather lasts about as
long as a $25 professional honing does for a beginner.

Hand honing and stropping will result in a better shaving edge but
only after practice and then only after learning what you like.