Thread: Can You Get A Straight Razor Too Sharp?

Actually I believe you CAN get by with less, should you desire.

Originally Posted by bookdoctor

Is there a way to get a really good shave from a SR that would be easy and not so involved with all this work with different stones, different pastes, different methods of honing, films, glass, marbles. Does anyone have any simple ways of getting this back to basic's? What did our forefathers do when they didn't have access to all of this high end expensive garbage.

I think the forefathers used barber hones with mixed degrees of success. Straights were eventually replaced by simpler forms of shaving. For me the razors in vogue when I started shaving were uncomfortable and did a lousy job. After 40 years of that I got so fed up that I looked for alternate ways of shaving.

The various modern ways of honing are used by enthusiasts, not for economic reasons, but because it's a hobby and challenge to get the ultimate edge. My problem was solved with the DE but I became fascinated with the straight and took it to an absurd level.

Originally Posted by bookdoctor

What did our forefathers do when they didn't have access to all of this high end expensive garbage.

They made do with what they had, grew beards, and/or went to barbers

I'm pretty sure that there are a higher percentage of SR self-shavers these days who are accustomed to very fine shaving edges because we can come here and share the knowledge, learn how to maintain the edges _and_ find out where to send our razors should we need/want genuine honemeisters to provide us with the keenest edges.

I was doing fine with 8k before i came here...

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

They made do with what they had, grew beards, and/or went to barbers

Note that the coincidence of:

1. Romans being especailly marked by an unprecedented degree of clean shaveness, and the extraordinarily advanced skill they had in steel. After the Empire fell, it took 500 or so years for Europe to claw it's way back to the skill necessary to produce sheet steel in any quantity, for example.

2. The pre-industrial Japanese penchant for hairstyles requiring shaving, and their eminence in steel.

The tech has enabled the fashion....

Originally Posted by WadePatton

I'm pretty sure that there are a higher percentage of SR self-shavers these days who are accustomed to very fine shaving edges because we can come here and share the knowledge, learn how to maintain the edges _and_ find out where to send our razors should we need/want genuine honemeisters to provide us with the keenest edges.

I was doing fine with 8k before i came here...

I completely agree. With any of the manual arts--heck, maybe with everything, the absolute best starting place is someone showing what excellence actually looks like.

Yes, I most often just use one stone: Belgian yellow coticule - for all but serious bevel setting it works well enough given time. For edge maintenance it's certainly all I use and it works well enough. I do use a 1k hone for bevel setting very neglected ebay razors since the coticule isn't well suited to that use IMO.

I could ditch all my other gear and get by fine with just the yellow coticule - but that's no fun! For this reason I also own 1k 3k 5k 8k and 10k hones, an unidentified natural stone that puts a seriously sharp final edge on a blade, as well as a couple of pasted strops. It doesn't have to be complicated - i would have thought a 4k/8k combo hone would do everything you need; with the exception of restoration work, where a 1k hone is well worth having.