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

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.

I do like hollow grind razors, but there have been some that we’re too hollow. I have had a few that just did not do it for me. Beautiful displays of workmanship. I just didn’t like the shave. It was not a bad shave, but it was consistently not great. Nothing wrong with the edge, they were pretty chatty, in all cases the new owners loved them. They just were not my favourites.

Maybe someone already said it but keep the blade almost flat on the face. Hard to do in some areas but it helps immensely with the flexing that hollows can have.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Maybe someone already said it but keep the blade almost flat on the face. Hard to do in some areas but it helps immensely with the flexing that hollows can have.

That will take some getting used to. I had to go left handed on my left side because I wasn't able to manage the angle crossing over.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

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.

Thanks. The next thing will be trying repeat it.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

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.

I do flip my wist when I strop.

I do hold the tang between my fingers and sort of half flip it as well but I have just sort of got used to twisting my wrist.

It doesn't affect my stropping or edges but it does make my wrist ache a lot and I'm usually relieved when finished.

I do flip my wist when I strop.

I do hold the tang between my fingers and sort of half flip it as well but I have just sort of got used to twisting my wrist.

It doesn't affect my stropping or edges but it does make my wrist ache a lot and I'm usually relieved when finished.

I twisted my wrist for a long time and once I got past rolling the edges it was fine except, as you say, it tires the forearm. I can only speak for myself. It's not wrong exactly, it just wore my arm out. It took some trust to let it roll between the fingers. I was afraid of scarring my strop I guess. It was less a difference between right and wrong as it was just easier on the arm to roll the tang between the fingers. Slowing down helped me.