Originally Posted by
AFDavis11
It's interesting that you mention this. I firmly believe that the need to understand why things are done with straight razors is one of the big things that prevents people from actually learning how to do it. We have an assumption that yoU need to know the "why" in order to learn.
Straight razors are actually really simple.
If you back hone it doesn't work as well. Now, everyone spends time back-honing, questioning, more back-honing, posting, forward honing. That goes on for a long time. Then one day, a few years later, they slowly concede, particularly as you get better and better at honing. Nobody really knows why it works better, they surmise.
I can only imagine how hard it is for people to deal with x patterns, stropping deflection, over honing, etc. And because they don't understand it, and people can't effectively prove it, they remain skeptical.
Then you have the guys that spend weeks learning how to get a decent edge back-honing. I guess it makes it interesting for them .
My point though is that you have a lot of tasks to learn to complete correctly in order to get a good shave. Maybe 100 different parts to it, maybe only 20. Like learning to drive a car, it's simple, but full of tasks. Imagine someone asking, "but why do I need to put the key in the ignition?". "Why do I have to put my hands at 10 and 2 o'clock, why, why, why?"
I applaud you curiosity, I'm just pointing out that if you find yourself getting frustrated remember this post. I was able to make some big gains in skill when I let go of the need to be almost philosophical about the reasons for doing things. Later on, after you've learned, you'll find lots of wiggle room and variations to the rules.
It's forward honing to move the steel away from the edge and it's 10 and 2 because 11 and 1 doesn't sound as cool.