Thread: Singing razors: what do you dislike about them?

Originally Posted by outback

All these shave as good as the other.

Attachment 329443

Ranging from the 1700s, to today.

IT'S YOU.!

Nice pants, Mike!

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Age old question being brought up again, razor grind is personal preference. If properly honed and stropped, edge sharpness is equal, sharp is sharp. Most problems are surrounded by the same things. If your razor is honed correctly, stropped correctly, then it’s the guy in the mirror. Tc

This is like a cold splash of water to the face. Yep, it's obvious when you say it like that.

Originally Posted by Wayne1963

Are you making a voluminous lather or a more of a compact, slick lather? IMO straight razors work better with the latter. A slicker lather should fix any skipping with the razor.

To answer many of yall's lather questions at once. I've been working on different things. But it seems like however much volume it has in the bowl it ends up pretty much the same on my face. So, it would be more like the latter. I really just try to get it fully covered without dripping. And I've kinda given up on trying to get nice volume until I want to take the time to really fine tune that.

The shave leading to this post I was testing two razors, a 5/8 singer and a 6/8 non singer. So, the lather was good enough for one of them at least.

Also, for preshave prep I usually shower then make and apply the lather. Then I strop and shave. If I do put aftershave on before the lather it is nicer, but I ususlly only do that when I'm feeling fancy or really trying to get gussied up. I use aftershave as a preshave because it easier than finding a preshave that I like.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

If a razor gives you a harsh shave ATG, look at the edge. Any grind should shave well ATG, especially a full hollow.

Full hollow razors are easy to flex, if you flex the blade while honing, stropping, or shaving, (yes shaving), you will lift the edge off the surface. The back of the bevel acts as a fulcrum and the edge comes off the surface.

When honing and that happens you are not honing the edge, same for stropping, shaving, you are cutting hair unsupported, your neck is more sensitive than the rest of your face, so you feel it more.

As said a quality Full Hollow will shave a dream.

The second a razor does not shave well, strop and look at the edge with magnification. If it was fully honed, the issue is stropping, it is a common issue. It just takes time to perfect your stropping stroke and full hollows can be unforgiving.

I never thought about stropping being different. I did see some debates on whether a razor sings on the strop, but I just thought that was a silly argument and didn't read much about it. And to be fair, until I started this I hadn't thought about it flexing too much on my face.

Originally Posted by Badgister

I keep hearing the “any well honed razor will shave like a dream” argument , but if that was the case, we wouldn’t have favourites.

I personally find that for my beard type, I like a extra hollow 7/8 or 8/8 best. It provides the closeness I seek from a full hollow with the added benefit of heft.

A superbly honed 5/8 full hollow razor will stil give me a great shave, whereas a superbly honed 7/8 full hollow will feel more effortless.

I see your point, but it doesn't sound like any of them should shave badly, just better levels of great. If a bunch of people said it was uncomfortable, then I'd just give them up and move on. But since they should be comfortable I must be doing something wrong and may put them up because they're too fussy .

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

Nice pants, Mike!

Where do you keep your shaving pants?

Originally Posted by planeden

Where do you keep your shaving pants?

And are they made of kevlar?

I'm going out on a limb here but I think it may be your honing. If I recall you came here as more of a knife guy. It's possible, if that is the case, that you may be leaning on the bevel a little too much while honing. It is very common for knife sharpeners. I think there is an important distinction to make here. You referred to "heavier" blades and "singing" blades. By that what you really mean is full or extra hollow ("singing") and some degree less hollow ("heavy") maybe half, quarter or near wedge. If a blade "sings" it is because of the tempering for one thing and the hollowness of the grind for another... actually that is an over simplification and not the whole story but suffices for this conversation. As stated the hollowness makes for flex, especially with a bellied hollow grind. If you "torque" the blade while honing, meaning twisting toward the bevel or pressing too hard against the stone the edge will either chip or it will lift. Also laying your fingers on the blade while honing can cause that. Maybe try, when you take that one back to the hone next, using light to no pressure on the blade. Holding the stone in hand takes some practice but it helps with using lighter pressure.

Dangit Paul. You and your "knife guys finished last answer" for everything. I am sorry that I got my first knife at 5 and didn't start shaving until sometime after 7. I was all ready to come in here and say:

Yeah, yall were right. Twas me.
1. Shaved after 3 days instead of a weekish.
2. Went for a bit wetter lather and a fancier soap.
3. Stropped with a very light touch and a little extra.
4. Relathered after stropping.
5. Gave myself time, put in my contacts, did all those stretching things, and barely touched my skin with a shallower angle (steeper angle? whichever).

Ended up with a comfortable 3 pass shave.

But no, now I gotta say "all yall, except paul, were right". hahaha.

In fairness to Paul, though. Next honing session I will probably look a the blade under the magnifier and go ahead and mark the edge and run a few swipes on the stone to make sure that I didn't screw up the edge at any point along the way.

Anyway, as always, thanks for everything guys (even Paul). Another thing that makes me a little less dumb.

PS: Still have that 40 something year old pocket knife next to my wallet and keys to go in my pocket whenever I leave the house. All three blades shave and everything (knife shave, not razor shave).

So many things effect it. Glad you are working through it. One of the big ones for me was stropping. It takes time to correct bad habits like rolling the edge or flipping the wrist. We all have our achilles heel.