Thread: How to cut into the beard?

Originally Posted by UKRob

Quite right Carl. A blade is unaware of the length of whisker it is cutting.

Yes. And you're quite right to ignore all the other gumph I wrote...

Originally Posted by UKRob

Quite right Carl. A blade is unaware of the length of whisker it is cutting.

This is true, but when u cut a whisker at its base u get resistanse. If u hold a whisker and then try and cut it of at an 90 angel u must have a realy realy sharp knife. When you cut into a beard u only get resistense when the whisker are touching the skin, and that leaves 0,001 millimeter of cuting before u bleed. When sawing u don,t need mutch resistance since the micro cips in the blade does the work.

So i must disagre

Originally Posted by Einar

This is true, but when u cut a whisker at its base u get resistanse. If u hold a whisker and then try and cut it of at an 90 angel u must have a realy realy sharp knife. When you cut into a beard u only get resistense when the whisker are touching the skin, and that leaves 0,001 millimeter of cuting before u bleed. When sawing u don,t need mutch resistance since the micro cips in the blade does the work.

So i must disagre

Oh anyway, regardless, sawing is discouraged, unless there are zombies...

Originally Posted by Einar

This is true, but when u cut a whisker at its base u get resistanse. If u hold a whisker and then try and cut it of at an 90 angel u must have a realy realy sharp knife. When you cut into a beard u only get resistense when the whisker are touching the skin, and that leaves 0,001 millimeter of cuting before u bleed. When sawing u don,t need mutch resistance since the micro cips in the blade does the work.

So i must disagre

Well my comment was that a blade does not know what length of whisker it is cutting - therefore if you disagree, you must think that the blade is aware. Sounds like a philosophical argument to me.

Originally Posted by UKRob

Well my comment was that a blade does not know what length of whisker it is cutting - therefore if you disagree, you must think that the blade is aware. Sounds like a philosophical argument to me.

If you are only talking about what the blade feels, I agree

I use guillotine and scythe strokes frequently, but I dont recommend them for a beginner. My understanding of the issue here is one of trying to get the blade through a few hairs to get the edge onto the skin. It may be that the edge is not fine enough, true. But i think moreso it is because shaving is done by cutting across the base, not trying to chop through, which is what seems to have happened here. I agree the fix is to trim with scissors first, then stretch the area and proceed. There is no such thing as cheating. What works, works.
And yes, please, no sawing.

Originally Posted by souschefdude

But i think moreso it is because shaving is done by cutting across the base, not trying to chop through, which is what seems to have happened here.

Ty, can you explain that for a dummy?

Originally Posted by Einar

Ty, can you explain that for a dummy?

The objective is to get a clean cut - if either the blade isn't quite there or the angle is off, this creates tugging which is, in effect, the edge catching on the hair and starting to slice down the length rather than cutting cleanly against the skin. If you picture a cleanly cut whisker as leaving a more or less round shape at the stub, the tugged whisker will have an oval shape at the bottom.

There are a couple of advanced techniques that help in ensuring a clean cut - the scything and guillotine strokes referred to above. If you picture the angled shape of a guillotine blade as opposed to the 90 degree angle of an axe/sword you can imagine why they are so much more efficient. Same theory applies to whiskers.

Originally Posted by Einar

Ty, can you explain that for a dummy?

Not sure but I will try, at least I'll try to explain it as a dummy.
I picture the blade cutting the whiskers at the base of the whisker. The blade is at an angle, and the whisker is held in place by the skin, as the blade slices through. Trying to cut through a pile of whiskers that are laying on your face I picture as trying to chop down through at a 90 degree angle. I would bet that if you approached the whiskers at the same angle as you do the face and make a few strokes it would get the job done.

Originally Posted by souschefdude

Not sure but I will try, at least I'll try to explain it as a dummy.
I picture the blade cutting the whiskers at the base of the whisker. The blade is at an angle, and the whisker is held in place by the skin, as the blade slices through. Trying to cut through a pile of whiskers that are laying on your face I picture as trying to chop down through at a 90 degree angle. I would bet that if you approached the whiskers at the same angle as you do the face and make a few strokes it would get the job done.

True, was just a bit aftaid of damaging my beard. Going to try less angle next time