Thread: One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

Originally Posted by MattCB

I fond myself drawn more to "unique" or "interesting" pieces more than a certain width or grind. Things that catch my eye are nice spine work, scales, or blade profiles. Give it a few years, things will change again.

To collect, use or both...and do you find they shave equally well?

Okay. First principles.

There is a completely unassailable difference between any two razors when one isn't honed well.

There is a completely unassailable difference between any two razors when one hasn't been stropped well, but things like grind, type of steel, quality of honing, how coarse the beard that it last shaved was, and how many times it's been used without stropping can all influence what 'stropped well' means.

After that, we get down to stuff like blade geometry, steel quality, type of grind, etc.

For me, personally? The difference in how my face responds to the razor from shave to shave is usually greater than those influences, but it's really hard to be sure because of those first two principles.

Did I really hone it right? Sometimes I get too lazy and I don't notice that the edges don't meet because it's good on one side but not the other. Did I slack on the stropping? Maybe!

After all that, with many shaves, my Heljestrands feel qualitatively different to all the Old Sheffield razors I have. As do my Le Coultre razors. But I've had early 20th century Wade & Butcher full hollows that shaved just the same.

My suspicion is simply that it takes less work to get blades that hollow to be that sharp, so they seem to take a better edge.

And then we get to the even bigger problem of intersubjectivity.

What is your best shaver might be uncomfortable for me. I've done enough honing and razor sales + swaps to know that 'the right edge' varies a good deal from person to person. I personally seem to be a bit pickier about how sharp it is than many folks, but not as picky as others.

For me it all comes back to the basic fact that the subjective experience of shaving varies from shave to shave without regard to the razor.

I've gotten, what are for me, perfect shaves with razors of every style and reasonable age (back to 1780), with 9/8 wedges and 4/8 hollows, with crucible steel, excellent modern steel, Bessemer steel, stainless steel.

I've gotten uncomfortable shaves with all the same (though I've only got one stainless steel razor, and it's never really given me any problems).

Short version

It's not possible to separate a meaningful difference in razors from the people using them.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

It's not possible to separate a meaningful difference in razors from the people using them.

Ok, but what about the other way around?