Thread: Sharp versus smooth

“Is there a point after a blade is honed where the blade is almost too sharp? Do you always want your blade at that point of ultimate sharpness? How do you strike that balance between too sharp (edginess) and smoothness? Is it just a matter of stropping to achieve that smoothness?”


It depends, on the blade type, the steel, and how it was honed or stropped.

You can get a straight razor edge, too sharp, but that, is not the goal.

And that is the beauty of a straight razor, you can tailor a blade and edge to the level of keenness and comfort, to your beard and skin. And you can maintain, that that level daily.

The balance, is in the Blade steel, grind, honing and stropping. Stropping, quality stropping, can maintain a level of keenness and comfort indefinitely, with paste, much easier.

Additionally, until recently folks were not, that obsessed with the quality of a shave, it was just something that had to be done, yes with a keen and comfortable edge, but not to the level of our current self-absorption.

The tools to maintain, a high level of keenness and smoothness, has been available for many years in stones and paste. Yes, some new tools, high grit synthetic stones and micro grit, paste make it easier. But vintage natural stones and pastes, are more than capable of producing very keen and very smooth shave.

No, you do not want ultimate sharpness, it is uncomfortable and you can have both.

A DE blade is an intentionally a short term proposition, Planned Obsolesce, a Straight Razor can be refreshed daily.