Thread: Is my razor sharp enough? HHT says NO! Your thoughts?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Here is what I read about though time after time..


IIRC Alan wrote something similar or maybe another of the Ole' farts...

1. New shaver gets razor
2. New shaver immediately strums thumb across edge
3. Ooooooo Sharp !!!!
4. Newb quickly lathers face
5. Lather half dries out as Newb takes 10 minutes to figure out how to actually touch razor to face
6. Newb finally does a half hearted attempt at the Side-burn to Jawline stroke (The Shave Test) this attempt is done with zero confidence in the half dried lather at the wrong angle...
7. This sux, the razor must be dull..
8. Newb strops razor and re-lathers
9. Tries the "Shave test again after of course rolling the edge with that great half a$$ed stropping attempt...
10. God this razor really sux, it is so dull...
11. Posts all this...
12. Gets 20 posts explaining every test there is... and GO READ THE WIKI from Robin...
13. Reads and asks more and starts to learn all the mistakes that he made..
14. Learns to strop gently and slowly and gets a semi sharp edge back on the razor and manages to get a real shave in....
15. Has the razor re-honed and realizes that it is him not the razor...He is then solidly hooked on straight razors, and starts posting advice to other Newbs...



16. Starts to hone Muhahahaha and starts the curve at the bottom again

This of course was written in all humor and does not reflect on any one person ....

haha...this is great! I see what you're saying and I've been lurking and posting around here long enough to see the trend...and pretty much that chain of events you just described was taken into consideration before making this post. And it may be possible that I dulled the blade with poor stropping technique early on, although I tried to go as slow as possible and apply very little pressure while keeping the 3" of TM latigo pulled tight....even practiced a few times beforehand with a butter knife and practice strop (thanks tony!) so i wouldn't accidentally roll the edge.

Either way, every time I shave with this razor I get the worst razor burn of my life (think old SE disposable plastic safety razor with no water ATG, then double it)....and I'm still left with so much stubble I have to follow up with a mach 3....it's really frustrating and I am determined not to give up, but I can't keep shaving like this...it's tearing up my face, so I just wanna eliminate all variables.

The way I see it, if I send the razor out, get it sharpened to an atomic level, shave without stropping it, and I'm still getting a bad shave, well then obviously my technique is terrible. (btw, I know my lather is top notch and prep should be good enough, though I refuse to have more "cosmetics" in my medicine cabinet than my girlfriend!)

If I get a great shave, and then it seems to get noticeably worse with each successive stropping, then obviously my strop technique needs work.

If it keeps shaving great for weeks and months to come, then my blade was simply dull...and I can happily continue straight shaving and offer this exact advice to newbies when they ask if their blade is dull! =D

haha, which reminds me of something my gramps used to say: "you could ride bare-assed to Boston on that blade and not get cut!"

So, watcha think Glen? Wanna take a look at this razor and see what you can do with it? Let me know what you charge and how to send payment.