Thread: Perfection, Is it in the blade or the hands that hold it?

Originally Posted by freenarative

What think you? Ifyou take an hour or two to hone and strop a cheap blade will it give you asgood a blade, shave and experience assomething more expensive or must one geta custom blade to truly enjoy a shave to its fullest?

You could theoretically put an equal edge on both razors.
The number of passes each razor will make thru stubble could vary greatly.

I can't speak from experience re $3 Chinese razors but change the words to '$14 Pakistani razor' & the greatest masters of razordom will still only get a few strokes till edge destruction.

I would also say that many cheaper vintage razors can shave as well as customs if honed equally.

NO. Absolutely not !

I think the real answer is simple.
Superior razor, cheap razor, newbie or 'master'.... There are so many factors involved in getting a great shave its possible that if the conditions are off even a 'master' with the finest razor in the world could have a less then perfect shave. On the other hand if all the conditions are perfect a newbie shave COULD have an excellent shave with awesome results with a cheapie blade.

If your face doesn't like the soap or the creme that day
If your edge is a little funky
If your skin is a little sun burned

Master or no master the results may not be 10/10

Originally Posted by 32t

A skillful master can use an inferior tool to accomplish his task. When you mention experience it involves much more than the "task".

With some things yes. If you got into a car race with Mario Andretti and you were driving a race car and he was driving a Yugo I would bet you wouldn't stand a chance. With razors I'm not so sure. A razor that shaves poorly will shave that way no matter who uses it.

I agree that there are too many variables. Give a perfectly honed razor to someone who doesn't have the skill to use it or giving a dull razor to someone that knows will result in a bad shave.

To the OP

Wow just Wow

I am not even sure what you are asking

But I read the post twice, and here is my answer

Some razors shave better then other razors, that "Better" often has nothing to do with "Price", and has everything to do with "Quality of Materials and Workmanship"

One other thing I know to be true, but I am not really sure if that is what you asking
"An experienced hand can shave a much less "Shave Ready" razor then an inexperienced hand can"

The short answer, perfection will only be had with a properly honed quality razor in experienced hands.
With either lacking, mediocracy is what one will end up with. At best

I get what you're saying... Skilled hands can accomplish a task with sub-par tools, because their skill aides them. Unskilled hands will sometimes accomplish the same job with above par tools, because the quality of the tool aides them.

The real question is, how much better will the skilled hands perform with above par tools?

Also, why do we park on a drive way but drive on a parkway?

I totally get the philosophy the OP is aiming for. It kind of reminds me of this clip from the Boondocks (some bad language) The Blind Samurai - YouTube