Ok, now what's he yakking about, right??

Think of a guillotine. In fact do a Google search if you are not familiar with one. Basically it is a device with an angled blade that drops straight down and slices through, ummmm, stuff.

Imagine if the blade was, instead of angled, placed straight across so that when it dropped on, stuff, it impacted with it's full length all at once. Instead of slicing through stuff, it would tend to crush, stuff.

That blade angle is the key to quickly and cleanly slicing, stuff. Note that the blade travels in a single plane of motion, straight down. There is no lateral movement, no forward nor backward side to side plane of movement. The angle of the blade does all the work.

This is exactly how a straight razor works to cleanly slice through stuff, like beard hairs. If the blade meets the hair head on, it will effectively try to crush through instead of slice through. Read: pulling and irritation.

The trick, as you move the razor around the different angles of your face, is to maintain that crucial angle of the blade where it meets/attacks your beard.

The other trick is to hold that single plane of movement so that the blade never, and I repeat NEVER, travels in a tangential or parallel plane to the skin.

Good luck,

Scott