Thread: is it harsh?

Alright, but why post the same thing 7 times? Many of the threads are quite old...

You have done this yesterday and today, copy and pasting the same thing. Fairly bizarre to me as I've only ever seen that with automated systems trying to sell porn/drugs/scams...

If you're that eager to increase your post count, just participate in current threads and help new people...

Originally Posted by petrakos

Originally Posted by thebigspendur View Post
With a straight the razor is directly on your face so if a safety razor bested it that can mean only two things. Your straight can be sharper or your technique can be sharper.

I use the R41 with a feather blade and I can get a result very very close to a straight however it still does not best a straight.
straight razor shavers will never accept that a modest de blade is sharper than even the best sharpened straight by the best honemeister
in general straight razor blade because is unguarded yes it exposes bare blade edge and the majority of safety razors don't expose as much he blade edge
but razors like muhle r41 2011 or a merkur vision wide open or an unguarded rolls razor etc are not differ so much from a straight razor as you claim
straight razor shavers see as a blasphemy that if some one maximize its technique with a de or se razor or any similar can get as close shaves as with straight razor
and straight razor shavers will never accept that when they use a de or se blade at last they feel what a sharp bade means
also several very experienced de shavers that use and straight razors say that if closeness of shaves is the final request then straight razor may not be the solution
as far as your perception that my straight razors can be sharper or my technique can be i inform you that i have and use several from the rarest kosher coticules directly from mr morris at ardennes as well as from a mine that old workers there told to him that is the best for straight razors which is la grise as coticule be says and naniwa super stones 10000 and 12000 grit as Herr wacker junior from solingen told me that beyond this grit there isn't any advantage
i don't know if you've used coticule with honing oil making the final polishing something that old honemeisters used and you can't get any further than that
i've done all that with my 8/8 quarter hollow custom razor with several wacker razors with my 5/8 thiers issard silver wing 1st generation as well as well as with several vintage swedish 7/8 singing razors from 1920 etc finally my best straight razor shave came from my bergischer lowe 5/8
anyway i've matched or exceled it with the maximazation of usage with muhle r41 2011 with a modest personna platinum chrome and with the best technique i could put
oh and i've managed it without skin stretching and softening my beard with hot towels and without stopping

There are plenty of people here that go beyond a Naniwa 10,000 or 12,000. A lot use the Shapton 16,000 and there are fans of the Gokumyo 20,000. And that's before we get into lapping films and pastes.

To say that one cannot get a straight razor as sharp as an industrial DE blade is asinine and outright incorrect.

Aside from that, you used up a whole lot of words just to say you prefer DE to Straight Razors. Congratulations, I guess?

I'm still going to use straights, and I'm still going to enjoy it more than I do my DE.

Originally Posted by petrakos

i will agree that straight razor provides smoother shaves and the closeness they provide is achieved with less passes
i have wacker extreme hohlung in german which is extra or double hollow 7/8 or i should say 15/16 but the old generation not the new one is on their site
is the most hollow razor i have but even if is honed at its best still i think cannot cut a hair as easy an industrial blades do
i think this is due to the coatings they definetely have in order to reduce friction as well as that have thinner edges than straight razors but also someone must not forget that they are honed/stropped by huge pieces of leather placed in cylinders that accellerate at speeds that human hand cannot provide with hand stropping

Average width of a DE edge = 0.4 microns
Average width of a straight razor edge = 0.4 microns

Read the study & stop arguing for your limitations.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads...nifeshexps.pdf

Originally Posted by petrakos

finally my best straight razor shave came from my bergischer lowe 5/8

I found this part of the quote to be questionable. This is not meant to offend anyone, but I don't have a best ever razor. The whiskers seem to shave just as easy with each straight razor. I can hone the boker, dorko, dubl duck, dovo, or any of the many good razors I have and I can not tell which one is the sharpest or shaves the best. They all shave good. No harshness . My point is if you were blind folded you should not be able to tell the difference unless it is your honing that is setting them apart.

Originally Posted by buzzhave7

Hello everyone, I'm a newbie to wet shaving and I have a lot questions. Is aggressive DE is equivalent to a straight razor shave?

Theres been a lot of different views on this thread so I'll throw my own in!

When I first started SR shaving about 7 years back I found that both SR's and DE's will remove hair to roughly the same standard but for some reason the SR shave lasted longer before the stubble returned.

When you first start the DE will probably feel better and get better results, but thats only because your technique wont be up to scratch. Once your technique is there with the straight then I found the SR felt better even though the end result was a smooth face with either weapon.

The key thing is the smoothness factor in the feel of the straight, and that is a combination of how you hone the blade and how you use it, plus the steel that went into it.

An aggressive DE shave will probably feel uncomfortable (unless you have skin like a Gucci handbag ) and so will a bad SR shave.

If you want to know how an SR shave feels then I would recommend going to a barber and seeing what they do, and how your face feels afterwards. That was my first ever "proper" shave and how I got into SR shaving to begin with.

Good luck and keep us posted!

I,m happy for you, your mostly wrong but it's your right to be, but do keep on, it's very funny, straights are great so are DE,s and it doesn't matter how many Wackers you have, you need to work on your honing so you will know how well they shave, Good luck. Tc

The closet razor other than a straight for a great shave was the Mongoose SE with a Feather blade.

Good wide head, solidly fixed SE blade, and a great shave.

Difference?

Irritation factor and redness afterwards and shave not lasting as long as a straight. If I use the Feather Pro Guard, much less irritation, great shave, but I'd be shaving everyday.

I also do the same stretching of the skin when I use the Mongoose. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the straight shave lasts easily 10 hours longer than my SE shave. DE shave, I'll get 5 o'clock shadow....really perplexing, because the industrial consistent sharpness of the DE and SE blades is a known factor....perplexing lol.

Originally Posted by petrakos

get well soon dear commentator
if you like or if you have the mental ability to read and understand mentally you can find the answers to your questions or concerns
if you could understand what i've said in my post is that a much much much much more experienced person than you, son of herr herribert wacker in Solingen who speaks english and his father is the last of a couple meisters in Germany told me that beyond 10000 to 12000 grit for polishing offers nothing and i think they are hell of alot more knowledgeable than you and me as these are the stones they use for their customers
i have more than 20 wacker razors from wedge to extreme hohlung or hollow and many more straights than you honed with kosher coticule with honing oil or with lump oil etc and this is the method of oldest honemeisters and in US which is referred to threads here and where i live the last hone meister who his father his grandfather and his great grand father done this job and this equals or exeeds 20000 grit as you say
also the grit size differs from company to company such are shapton etc so the 16000 etc means nothing
i inform you that from all the straight razors i use i never felt what a sharp blade means other than a fresh de blade of high quality or any quality se
for straight razor shavers is blashfemy or forbidden to speak about such things
chears
just thinking lol
Razors Under a Microscope

First, there is no reason to be rude. You, like the rest of us, are a guest here and need to behave accordingly.

Razor makers seem to do the minimum necessary to complete the edge. I don't fault them for that at all, but the edge can be made much more comfortable than the factory edge.

You can "inform" us all you want but you don't strengthen your argument at all by saying the same thing over and over.

Finally, those photos were taken by in incompetent microscopist. Lighting matters. Consistency matters. Removing oil matters. Most importantly, understanding that what is seen under the scope does not always translate well to the feel on the face matters.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I,m happy for you, your mostly wrong but it's your right to be, but do keep on, it's very funny, straights are great so are DE,s and it doesn't matter how many Wackers you have, you need to work on your honing so you will know how well they shave, Good luck. Tc

Gotta say, my opinion only, but when a Dovo and "best shave ever" are mentioned in the same sentence, I can't imagine what could be worse....

Yar, I be smellin' a troll in deez waters. However, these are my thoughts.

You know someone at Wacker, neat. But it's ironic since one of the largest proponents of Germany razors (RobinK, I think?) isn't that big of a fan. You're taking peoples words as gospel, which is crap. If someone presents you with an opinion on something, you should fact check it and try it yourself. That's just common sense.

Guestimating that you have at least 6 years of experience wet shaving, but you participate little in these forums. That means you have read as much as we have. You haven't experimented as much as the multitudes of people here have. I've only seen you post about one safety razor, the 2011 R41 muhle, that you are quite ga-ga over. This does not lend much credence to your authority on sharp things.

Going back through your posts, you just seem to want to start arguments of straight versus DE blades. What is the purpose of this? You are not starting a legitimate conversation. The fact that you are even still here is a testament to the patience and tolerance of the higher-ups in this forum.

DE blades are factory made. Things are made to be done as accurately as possible at the fastest speeds. Machines are great for many things, but are not some all-mighty faultless devices. They're made by humans and with the restraints of statistics and physics, are only so capable. Your touted Feather blades have even had issues in the past. I've had bad blades from my feather pack.