Thread: Hot Water On The Blade = Better Shave ?

I'm with Bart here.

- Scott

There's scientific reasoning behind rinsing or soaking prior the shaving in hot water.

Cold blade on skin = pores contract.

A hot towel or other method are designed to get pores to open up!

So, showering or hot toweling and then putting a cold blade on your skin, reverses the work you just did.

Now, as far as what I do, I never really notice. When I have time, I'll definitely soak it because the warm blade does feel better on my skin, but I can do without it. It just seems to cause more irritation.

So, my half a cent.

I always rinse with hot throughout the shave... has always worked very well.. I tried with cold rinse and I didn't like it as much with the hot lather counterpoint. IMHO hot blade rinse is a bit better.

I use warm water in the winter and cold in the summer.

For me it is just a comfort issue and don't believe it affects the sharpness or smoothness of the shave.

I also often wipe the lather off on my finger when test shaving to see if there is a less sharp area of the blade. The temperature of the blade is always secondary to the sharpness off it.

There have been a few threads in the past on this topic. The most interesting one IMO speculated about the physics of metal with temperature. Some claimed hot water would make the edge sharper as the metal expanded, others argued that logic would mean cold water would lead to a sharper edge since it would contract and make it 'thinner'.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...6-rinsing.html

All good natured conjecture of course, but I'm not convinced it makes a blind bit of difference. We're creatures of habit, and I'm sure most of us use hot water because that's what we've always done. And there are so many variables to a good shave that I don't buy into the idea that blade temperature over a relatively small range makes any discernible difference.

I used to use hot water, but now I rinse in cold -- I've noticed no difference to my shaves as a result. My sometimes crappy jobs at honing would make any difference cold/hot water makes undetectable anyway!

I learned to shave with hot water on the blade also. The barber also told me to leave droplets on the blade when you shave. I still leave droplets on the blade but I don't warm it up anymore.

I like to rinse under the hot water for two reasons. First, I like the way the hot blade feels, and second, if I leave the blade a little wet, at initial contact, it adds a tiny bit of extra water to my lather, making it that much slicker and ready for cutting. Seems to help for me. Some days I make the lather a little more perfect than the next, so the effect this has varies and I tend to vary the amount of water left on the blade based on my lather that day.

Hot water clears the lather better but that's about it. I use hot water at home for this reason, but use cold water when camping and it doesn't seem to affect the shave.

One thing hot water does do however is make your lather dry out faster - that hot lather cools down by mostly by evaporation. So if you're one of those guys that dislikes having to rewet your lather mid-pass, try using water that is merely warm, or even tepid.

This morning I worked on my Robert Williams swayback custom some more. I finally got it to HHT all the way along the curved blade. That will be covered in a forthcoming review of my favorite razor of all time. For now anyway ....

After getting the HHT cold I ran it under hot water and repeated. No difference that I could discern. Lovely shave though.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

This morning I worked on my Robert Williams swayback custom some more. I finally got it to HHT all the way along the curved blade. That will be covered in a forthcoming review of my favorite razor of all time. For now anyway ....

After getting the HHT cold I ran it under hot water and repeated. No difference that I could discern. Lovely shave though.

Come on Jimmy! You just wanted to brag!