Thread: Does the razor 'fin' really exist?

A full hollow razor needs absolutely no pressure to hone; very hard to do in concert with honing a 1/2 hollow which is a completely different ballgame.

You can sharpen a razor with striations or you can sharpen it on higher and higher grits, and higher pastes out to .25 and both will shave well. I find a razor with striations shaves much better, and is easier to achieve with less equipment.

The magical fin is something I'm not really ready to buy into yet.

If I push a car downhill with the clutch in I could convince you that that is the way a car drives, but eventually you'll learn, only by practicing, that you do in fact need the gas pedal. Shaving is the same way, if I show you a pic of a razor ultra sharp and tell you thats correct what else are you to believe? You don't even see them shave with it. I prefer to use the advice in the barbers manual and create striations. Shaves better, easier to achieve, and I don't need to use pastes at all. And in case 20 of my friends stop by I can shave them all, just like a barber, instead of using a gentle fragile edge I create, and then recreate, and then recreate. Both methods work though. Really well in fact for most.

You won't see me waiting a day between shaves with the same razor.

The fin on the other hand would probably show itself better if you shaved once a week with a 7 day set. You'd probably let the razor grow back (if that happens) and knock the rust off stropping. The "fin" and striations are different. I've seen the importance of striations. I've never seen any evidence of a 'fin'. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist but I think you would have to NOT strop after shaving, not even dry the blade and let it sit overnight and try and shave the next day to discover that its not working as well, then you'd wait a few days and knock off the dried out rust between the microserrations and blam, it works and you believe in a 'fin"...still exists, you just don't see it often enough, mostly because of the way we treat our blades and also because of modern steel treatments (modern being 1900 and newer).

I've never bought into the basic concept that a fin grows either. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I just can't say I've ever seen any evidence of it.

Striations on the other hand are very useful, and obtaining them with the 4K is one method (not the best in my opinion, its a really low grit). But try a pyramid method instead, it shave great and is easy to obtain. You can maintain it a long time with just one stone. You''ll need to retouch on 4k about once a month.