Thread: In The Deep End

Maybe a 'scything' stroke was meant? I sometimes kind of sweep a razor with the heel of the blade as a pivot. It depends on which razor I'm using at the time.




Wayne

I'm finding that too, as well as (on the diagonal note) leading slightly with the tip, but those depend mostly on the position of my wrist and what's most comfortable from stroke to stroke. No matter what stroke technique, I still find that the key factors (after keeness of course) are the steepness of the blade, (30º being optimal) and streching the skin (from behind the grain where possible). That gives the closest shave results.

X

I learned from DE shaving that you benefit from the shallowest angle, because it lets you use the lightest pressure, minimizes the amount of pressure towards the skin and minimizes the scraping effect of the blade. When I applied the idea to the str8, it helped a lot. Itry to shave with the shallowest angle that still cuts well. I find that it can sometimes be a lot less than 30 degrees.

Originally Posted by xman

I still find that the key factors (after keeness of course) are the steepness of the blade, (30º being optimal) and streching the skin (from behind the grain where possible). That gives the closest shave results.

X

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

I learned from DE shaving that you benefit from the shallowest angle, because it lets you use the lightest pressure, minimizes the amount of pressure towards the skin and minimizes the scraping effect of the blade. When I applied the idea to the str8, it helped a lot.

I still find that 30º is optimal. Perhaps the blade wasn't quite sharp enough or maybe I was using a bit too much pressure, but when I tried to steepen the angle I experienced a propensity for nicks and rashing.

I think my stropping has been wrong and am going to switch to a heal first action across the grain of the honing rather than with it to see if that improves the shaving edge. I'm thinking I should continue WITH the grain on the pasted strop, but would appreciate it if anyone could weigh in on this.

More interestingly, even before I switched stropping action, I began performing a pyramid honing, not on the Norton 4000 though. Instead I used the 8k and ... here it comes ... the Pike barber hone! A little water and soap, as generally recommended, on the Black Beauty and it helped establish a better edge on the new Henckell as well as the Ern and W&B I've been whittling at. I can't get those last two to finish, but the Henck #15 gave a decent shave without going to the pasted strop.

The learning curve continues,

X

My suggestion was to REDUCE the angle. Increasing the angle can be expected to apply more pressure towards the skin, to require more total pressure to shave and to produce more of a scraping effect by the blade.

You can't possibly increase nicks by reducing the angle, if you stretch. Think about it, if the blade could cut the whiskers parallel to the skin you couldn't cut the skin. You also couldn't irritate the skin because you'd be coasting over it. It's when the blade is angled toward the skin that you begin to experiece nicks and irritation.

Originally Posted by xman

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

I learned from DE shaving that you benefit from the shallowest angle, because it lets you use the lightest pressure, minimizes the amount of pressure towards the skin and minimizes the scraping effect of the blade. When I applied the idea to the str8, it helped a lot.

I still find that 30º is optimal. Perhaps the blade wasn't quite sharp enough or maybe I was using a bit too much pressure, but when I tried to steepen the angle I experienced a propensity for nicks and rashing.

I use diagonal stroke on every shave. At an angle of 45 degrees. The razor cuts like dream that way. On the tip of my chin, i use straight pull, with a slight angle to it, around 10 degrees. I also picked up this in a barber's manual, and it seams like a good idea. I am shaving with my DD Satinedge for a month now, every other day with no sign of dulling.

I did as you said, Joe. Say 20º. A sharper angle, shallower I guess. Back of the blade closer to the skin. My bad choice of words earlier. ops:

Superfly; On that same note, can you be more specific about the direction of the angle? Do you mean that you move the blade with a 45º differrence between the toe and heal or with the spine of the blade 45º from the skin? And is that 10º from the skin around the chin or a 10º difference between heel and toe? Does "straight pull" mean 90º up?

X

Where not talking about a slicing angle. We're talking about the angle that's related to how far the spine of the razor is from the skin.

Originally Posted by superfly

I use diagonal stroke on every shave. At an angle of 45 degrees. The razor cuts like dream that way. On the tip of my chin, i use straight pull, with a slight angle to it, around 10 degrees. I also picked up this in a barber's manual, and it seams like a good idea. I am shaving with my DD Satinedge for a month now, every other day with no sign of dulling.

I was refering to the earlier reply, when discussed a diagonal stroke, or 'scything' stroke. I use this stroke, with sucess.

I checked the angle of my cutting stroke, it is more like ~30 degrees, like in the barber's manual.

The blade angle should be around 30 degrees, also. Try modifying to suit your style.


Blade Angle:


Cutting Angle:

xman,

On the chin, i reduce the cutting angle to 10-15 degrees. By the straight pull, I mean reducing to 0 degrees, or straight down, like when push-cutting.