Thread: scything with opposite hand!!

I sort of stumbled into scything. I was shaving with a swedish blade freshly honed by Max and as I started my second pass I asked myself, "how can this shave get ANY better?" Then I scythed. With both hands. It was a revelation!
I think the feedback I was getting from the XTG stubble and the blade taught me that moving it this way makes it easier to use less pressure, versus moving it that way creates more resistance. When you think of it that way it's easier to do. Scything is just the path of least resistance that farmers figured out long ago.
Mow those fields of stubble!!

Something about the term scything and trachea used in a straight razor forum just flat gives me the willies.
I throw like a girl with my left hand ergo do not trust myself with a blade and da trachea region. I do roll my wrist and get by pretty well using just mister righty.

There are no two of us whose beards grow the same way, so it is going to take many different individual techniques, to arrive at the desired result of a close smooth shave without irritation. Sometimes I wish my beard consisted of thin wispy hairs that are removed with one WTG pass, but unfortunately I am blessed with coarse wiry hairs that grow in all directions. It takes a combination of techniques to clear my daily growth, and every day is a learning experience, even after a few years with straights. For me, non dominant hand scything and judicious skin stretching is necessary to get BBS. I will say that I seldom nick myself anymore, and when I do it is extremely shallow. As for anatomical terms, I use those which are correct-saying that you use a "sickle stroke toward the windpipe" sounds just as ominous as scything toward the trachea! Wish I had a Dubl Duck Lifetime Grim Reaper to do it with