Thread: Smiling vs straight blade

Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

I too prefer a smiling blade, but it's all about preference. It's almost like: What color do you like? Neither will give a "better" shave over the other or hone easier...it's what you are used to or prefer. Try it all, you will find that over the years you will lean one way, then another, and then yet another. Enjoy the journey!

really? I was told - especially for beginner, it would be a bit harder to hone smiles?

For learning to hone I don’t see a big difference between a smiling or a straight edge. What really sets a difficult to hone razor from an easy to hone razor is how true the razor is and the hone wear being irregular or not.

On another note a blade with a rather large smile may take a bit to get your strokes consistent. I use an X stroke for pretty much everything, for a smiler just add a little roll. The real trick to getting good with honing is practice.

I like the smilers better for both form/appearance and function. They look more interesting like a sword or sexier with curves. They also look more exotic and harder to make. But they also cut my thick beard better.

Originally Posted by NittanyGator

I like the smilers better for both form/appearance and function. They look more interesting like a sword or sexier with curves. They also look more exotic and harder to make. But they also cut my thick beard better.

i somehow find smiles easier to handle around trickier parts of my face. Being a thin, bony sort of fellow a lot of my face has small sharp curves.

Learning to hone a smiling razor is not that difficult. Some sharpie ink and a little time is all you need. Ink the bevel, colored ink is easier to see without magnification and watch where the ink is removed, by how much you lift the heel in a rolling X stroke. Practice on a high grit stone, once you get the amount of “rolling” needed, move to your progression and fully set the bevel, then polish.

The rolling X stroke is a good stroke to master, it will come in handy honing rounded heels and toes of straight razors. Fully honed heels and toes are very handy to shave with

What Euclid said^^^^^

I think one of the biggest breakthroughs in my SR life has been learning how useful well-honed toes and heels can be in the tough, tighter areas of my face!

So how have I missed out on this thread for so long?! I always say, I like both my razors and my women big and curvy (well, my lovely wife of 25 years, who am I kidding?!).

So yeah, it's probably easier to learn to hone a straight edge, but the majority of my razors have been smiling, so I learned to hone them early on. And yes, they do fit the hollows of the neck better, and I agree with the others that that last little bit of blade on the heel and toe can come in handy-I have even been known to try to hone up into that curve on both ends lol (or at least to the point where the increasing thickness makes it impossible)!