Thread: Left Right

I've used both hands since I started. I'm lousy with my left hand, but it has come along nicely with shaving.

Regarding bevels, when I first started I received some blades done by honemeisters. The edges were almost
invisible. Mine were horribly tall. I've worked on that and now mine are hard to see too. The secret is using
no pressure except the weight of the blade itself. It also helps to go no lower (numerically) in grit than you
have to.

I tried to take pictures of my blade, but my camera won't take good pictures with an object that close, close enouph to capture the bevel.

As far as bevel depth, I would think that as the razor rest on the hone, which because of a straight razors concavity, only the spine and edge touch the hone, so that alone dictates the bevel depth. The spine precludes you from achieving a really deep bevel and unless you raise the spine you can't get a really small bevel. You woudn't, I would think, want to raise the spine because you risk ruining your edge, plus the spine helps you keep a uniformity in your work. In my case, if the above is right, I believe the razor was honed more on one side so that the edge was formed on the opposite side of the cross-sectional centerline and the other side was not worked on much.


Pardon the crude drawing.

It shaves fine, should I worry?

Speaking of bevel depth. I know each time you shave your hairs cause the bevel to look like Freddy Kruger let out some frustration and we strop to polish it back up, and that ware on the bevel is what causes discomfort in succesive shave without stroping. I'm not so sure if the edge is "fixed" by stroping, but it seems to me again if the above is right that the smaller the bevel the more easier it is to strop/polish the bevel back to shave readiness. On the other hand, a deep bevel seems to me would provide a smoother shave and a sharper point.

Hi Knife,

Good drawing! You're right about the spine acting as a honing guide. Someday you'll hone an old full wedge and that's where you really have to work hard to keep a narrow bevel.

Your drawing looks exactly like my edges would look if I hadn't gotten my heavy-handed return stroke corrected. Even the same side of the blade is worn.

I'm not sure bevel depth has any effect on stropping; in stropping most of the friction is from the spine against the leather and the shaving edge just follows along for the ride. At the edge, the strop surface snags, straightens, and smooths the little dings left from collisions with hairs. That's just my intuitive understanding, and intuition may well fail out at that microscopic little bit of the world.

Regarding the right/left question that was originally posted, my opinion is that using both hands is quite useful. I felt very awkward using my left at first, but I very quickly became almost as good with my left as with my right. I'm sure the learning curve is different for everyone, but now that I'm comfortable with both, I find myself switching hands quite a bit (withouth really thinking about it) as I try to get the best angle for various parts of my face. I consistently use the right hand for right cheeck and vice versa, then left hand for right neck and vice versa. For my chin and upper lip, I find myself switching hands more in order to get the right angles, especially when I'm touching up any missed spots after my standard WTG and XTG passes. Even if you find it difficult, I recommend sticking with it for a few weeks to see if you can get more comfortable with your off hand. I also brush my teeth left handed now for practice - seems to help.

That's great. You're much farther along on ambidextrous shaving than I am. I do it when absolutely necessary, which it is for a couple of spots, but not with great confidence yet.

I have learned to work many power tools with either hand, and can drive nails left-handed. Had to do that after I left white-collar world for construction around age 40. Since I hadn't spent a couple of decades building construction worker strength I've had to swap out the load so my right arm didn't suffer all the weird torques and slams.