Quote Originally Posted by Chrisl View Post
I visualize as the toothiness of such razor edges being really like micro-saws slicing through whiskers (maybe that's why a scythe motion toe or heel leading lends more to slicing/sawing whiskers rather than a head on chopping motion).
Chris L
I think that is a correct statement. If you look in the honing chapter of the 1961 barbering textbook, http://straightrazorpalace.com/compo...id,3/Itemid,3/
there's a drawing on the top of page 22 (page 2 of the PDF) that gives a good impression of the teeth being formed by the striations. If the striations are all parallel to eachother and angled at 45 degrees to the edge of the blade, I think the resulting micro-teeth will be equilateral triangles. So it won't matter if you scythe toe leading or heel leading. In everyday shaving practice, I use a mix of all possibilities, toe and heel leading and straight chopping as well, depending on where on my face I am shaving. When going straight down (or up) though, I try to slant the blade a bit, so it cuts guillotine style. That's usually much easier to do with the heel leading.

On a different note: a while back, when my honing skills were not exactly were they are now , all this mattered to me much more. Without scything motions my razors simply wouldn't give me a close shave. Then I had a breakthrough with honing, and now it all seems to matter less. I'm more focusing now on attacking the hairs from the right angle during my second pass (ATG), then trying to scythe-by-all-means. When it comes to improving closeness of the shave at my stubborn jugular areas, sharp razors and the correct angle of attack ATG have done more for me than the scything motion.