Thread: Know your razor

There's a saying 'familiarity breeds contempt' and it goes double for razors. Let me explain.

My most used razor is a 6/8 Joseph Rodgers frameback. It is as curved as a banana. I really love curved razors.

I am currently honing razors for one of our fellows here, and 2 of these razors are as straight as a ruler, and they end in a spike point.
When I say spike I really mean spike, as in 'an almost perfect 90 degree angle that begins right on the edge'.

Normally when shaving my cheeks and jaws, the point of contact with my skin is at the heel, and as I progress, I raise the heel to make contact with the middle part of the blade, and a bit more to make contact with the toe. This works perfectly fine with curved blades, and it allows me to shave every part of my face with optimal contact.

The problem is 2 fold...
a) this only works with curved razors.
b) shaving rituals become an ingrained habit.

So when I testshaved the 1st blade, I cut my skin at the cheekbone on the right AND on the left, and cut my ear on the left as well, despite the fact that I was really paying attention after drawing first blood.
The second blade left me only with 2 cuts. Again on both the cheekbones.

I have honed and testshaved a variety of blades, both in sizes, grinds and points, but this is the first time that the point is not where I think it is on my skin. each of those 5 cuts was made with the point only.

It's like learning to shave all over again.

There goes my winning streak of having no significant cuts for several months now.

Dude, at least you know how to flame out in style.

And this is my 1,000th post...

Josh

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Dude, at least you know how to flame out in style.

And this is my 1,000th post...

Josh

But I am gaining on you, slowly but surely...
I have calculated that I will catch up with you in just 500 days

Been there, done that <g>. I got a nice little brown translucent handle Spike from a member here and gave it a test shave on Saturday. Well it was really sharp and had a square point that looked a little rounded at the tip. Needless to say it was not as rounded as I suspected and I sliced a 1" long stripe down my cheek right against my sideburn with the tip. I have not done that for a long time.....well, not since I last tested a spike tip wedge a few weeks ago. I really ned to look at these closer before taking metal to flesh!

Love the razor though.

Tony

There's an easy way to keep spikes from doing this: After you've finished completely honing the razor, drag the corner very very lightly along the side of your 8k hone. This knocks off the edge off the corner, and is invisible unless you've got a microscope or unless you used waaay too much pressure. Spikes like that get a kind of or wire spike at the corner that is the main culprit.

Edit: Oh and Josh, Congrats on the milestone; you're half a blabbermouth!

Originally Posted by mparker762

There's an easy way to keep spikes from doing this: After you've finished completely honing the razor, drag the corner very very lightly along the side of your 8k hone. This knocks off the edge off the corner, and is invisible unless you've got a microscope or unless you used waaay too much pressure. Spikes like that get a kind of or wire spike at the corner that is the main culprit.

Thanks for the tip.
But since these are not my razors, I'll leave that for the owner to decide.

I regularly fix ,my spike exactly like this but having gotten a new razor in my greedly mitts I didn't take the time to do it right <g>. It looked a little rounded, the previous owner obviously shaved with it and lived long enough to sell it to me so I went with it. Lesson learned.... a few times <g>

Tony

I know people that do that very same thing in the heel of their japanese kitchen knives. That little point on the heel tends to get ya I would imagine it would be exactly the same on the other end

As I rotate through my razors I usually am careful when it comes to a spike point. I have two razors that are just more difficult, a red imp which actually flares out ever so slightly and you really have to be careful with that one and even worse my iwasaki japanese razor. it has a sharp spike at the toe and a sharp spike at the heel and its a short razor so you really have to be concentrating when you use that one or you can peel off a strip of skin from both sides at once.

I sometimes dull spikes like this too.

Even when I don't - it has not been too bad;l I still have my 2 worst cuts from round points

Cheers
Ivo