Thread: What is shave ready?

OK so you just got your nice new shiny razor and your wondering, is this thing shave ready. Much of this is subjective however is there really an objective test as to whether a straight is actually shave ready or can a razor be marginally shave ready? If you shave with it and you seem to get a good shave but maybe there's a tad of irritation or maybe a rough spot here or there.

To me a razor is shave ready when it just glides down your face without a trace of irritation and your left BBS. Of course not every razor will be that way even when honed to perfection and it also depends on your experience and technique.

So tell us what is shave ready to you.

I'm with you. The HHT is a good measurement, but a razor is only shave ready when it gives me a good, smooth, clean shave. There's no almost shave ready or nearly shave ready - only shave ready or not.

I agree with big spendur, it has to glide. I also agree with Lynn, that the only test that matters is the shave test.

I agree that a shave ready razor is one that glides smoothly WTG, XTG, ATG, with little to no irritation, no pulling and no tugging.... The definition should also contain the words
"On My Face, IF, I use it, Correctly"
Too many razors, too many faces, too many definitions.....

That's a tricky question. While I agree that shave ready should mean just that, I think there are varying levels and it's not absolute, because individuals vary.

There's definitely an absolute minimum, I think. Fall below that and no-one could shave with it. But there has to be varying degrees of shave ready after that. For example, some people shave off a coticule, some off an escher, some off barber's hones, some off 16k Shaptons, some off high grit natural Japanese, some off 0.5 micron pastes, and some off the 8k Norton. The edges produced must be different, and if we were able to measure them consistently they'd have to show measurable differences. Yet people get good shaves off all of these.

So I think the term shave ready is rather subjective in that sense. For me it's the person-specific interaction between hone, grit, steel, grind, whisker type, skin type, lather, beard prep., and shave technique.

That's the theory, anyway. The fact that honemeisters consistently produce shave-ready edges for all types of people is evidence:

1. That they know what the minimum requirement is;
2. That they consistently achieve better-than-minimum edges;
3. The individual to individual shaver variation becomes less important the further past the minimum edge standard the razor is taken.

So, I guess I'd say that there's an absolute minimum (shave ready or not) but that above that minimum there's a limited shave-readiness continuum.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

That's a tricky question. While I agree that shave ready should mean just that, I think there are varying levels and it's not absolute, because individuals vary.

There's definitely an absolute minimum, I think. Fall below that and no-one could shave with it. But there has to be varying degrees of shave ready after that. For example, some people shave off a coticule, some off an escher, some off barber's hones, some off 16k Shaptons, some off high grit natural Japanese, some off 0.5 micron pastes, and some off the 8k Norton. The edges produced must be different, and if we were able to measure them consistently they'd have to show measurable differences. Yet people get good shaves off all of these.

So I think the term shave ready is rather subjective in that sense. For me it's the person-specific interaction between hone, grit, steel, grind, whisker type, skin type, lather, beard prep., and shave technique.

That's the theory, anyway. The fact that honemeisters consistently produce shave-ready edges for all types of people is evidence:

1. That they know what the minimum requirement is;
2. That they consistently achieve better-than-minimum edges;
3. The individual to individual shaver variation becomes less important the further past the minimum edge standard the razor is taken.

So, I guess I'd say that there's an absolute minimum (shave ready or not) but that above that minimum there's a limited shave-readiness continuum.

James.

Could you give us a graph?
















!!
Seriously though, I'm with Jimbo on this!

While this looks like a great thread and I agre with your ideas of shave ready I do fear this is going to lead to unhappy newbies (and honers).

Most beginners will not have a good enough technique to achieve a smooth gliding shave no matter what razor is used and will feel their shave ready razor is far from shave ready.

The warning "if I use it correctly" is a key point. With experience, "most" faces will find a shave ready razor honed by someone else will glide down the face while shaving. That said I know I have had razors honed by all the big names and almost always needed to tweak them a bit to shave the way I like.

Tony

Originally Posted by JMS

Could you give us a graph?
...

You've got me pegged Mark. I was seriously considering making a graph, but couldn't figure out what to put on the horizontal axis.....

James.

As already stated, there are different levels of shave ready. What might be considered shave ready for some, could be "not-shave-ready" for others.

If I might try an analogy here - let's say all of us can write. But how many of us can write well enough to meet a publishers standard? But your writing might still be pretty good.....to you.

Well, maybe that's a crappy analogy. But if you're happy with your razor, and it's ability to shave you, then it's shave ready.

I've found through experience that there actually are subjective, non-shave, tests that one can use to tell if a razor is keen enough to shave. But if some prefer to go straight to the shave to test their razor for shave readiness, why not?


Scott

For me shave ready is when the razor gives me a close shave that leaves little irritation.

This is a better edge than the one that removes hair but scrapes my face but not as good as a comfortable shave. Better than the comfortable shave is the one that you barely fell but still feel the hairs being cut. Beyond that is the smooth squeegee shave.

For me a razor can be shave ready but still not as good as what I want to shave with. I can tell when a razor is shave ready but only after the shave test do I know if it is a razor I want to shave with or whether or not it needs more work.