Quote Originally Posted by LawsonStone View Post
I have no hesitation at all slightly rounding off spike points. My face is way more important to me than any sense of the razor's historical purity! That point might need a little more rounding. Do it. Or buy a razor with a rounded point. Life is to short, and straight-shaving is too much fun, to go around with scars and blood all over you.

No matter how good your technique, one day you'll slip and that sharp square point will get you, and get you good. I round 'em off a bit. Not worth the grief and extra anxiety. Plus, it's really, really hard to make people think straight shaving is so great when you constantly look like a reject from a European University dueling fraternity.

I do think a beginner should start with a rounded point razor. I see no real value of retaining the near-lethal spike point or sharp square point on a razor. I suspect I'm in the minority here, but that's my view. It's shaving. It's not a religion. It's your face, the razor is carbon steel.
Absolutely sound advice.

Sure -- you can keep shaving with square points -- gouge up your face, make sheepish explanations to your friends, learn to hate straight razors, give up the practice, go back to modern shaving tools, all the more straights for us....

or --you can try something you're very likely to feel more confident with, your strokes will improve and you'll be a better shaver for it. I've been using straights for 14 years and I still prefer round points, I don't have to fear that moment's loss of concentration and have that point swing around and gouge the crap out of me.

Maybe I missed it -- what are you using and who honed it?