Thread: Blasphemy

Very good thread!
I remember a thread in nassrasurforum.de, where they were talking about the special temperature the lather has to have (in degrees!!!).
I first thought this was a kind of joking but they were taking it very serious!
... imagine our grandfathers listening to such, let me say: very sophisticated tech talk ...

@pmays
Thats exactly the way I do it. It's fantastic to discover -behind rust and dust- a great blade wich gives a superb close shave.

With stropping and honing it's the same: I don't count exactly, I try to feel ...
... with the open mind of a beginner and the experience of a daily shaver ...

Anyway this forum is really great and without Lynns Video my ears would lay in the gutter ... (is it "gutter"??)

Arnd

Yes for me a little experience made a lot of difference. In fact the more I spend on shaving stuff the worse my shaves get. Either I need time to learn that new hone, the blade needs more friggin' honing, or the strop isn't broken in enough. Just using one blade, some Dove soap, and an old strop works great. Sometimes I think honing isn't a skill at all. Its just passing the blade over a stone a gagillion times and posting on here every trillion or so passes, and honemiesters giving a word of encouragement in between.

"Yeaaaaa, just use light pressure and you'll get it".

In the background their grinning and going

"Yea, your dog would get it with enough passes for crying out loud, your moving a piece of steel over a soft low grit rock, did you think it was going to take 4 swipes?" :-)

I think for me part of the problem was not having a frame of reference. I've never learned to hone a knife, let alone a razor. Now I still use more pressure on both the hone and strop then I think most guys do but reading about using "light" pressure, technically has no meaning. Only when you hone and use the feel of a certain amount of pressure do you realize that light could have all kinds of definitions. And then it hits you that all the light pressure in the world doesn't mean squat if the blade is lifting off the hone.

Most guys gravitate towards equipment solutions over experience. Now I can't fail to hone a razor. Its like a secondary function next to brushing my teeth. How did that happen? Doesn't matter what grit, hone, razor, brush . . . in fact I don't even need a brush anymore. I think I do like a good strop though. But don't give me a new one, the old one isn't going anywhere.

But it has to be practice and experience. I've gotten a great shave with a stainless/carbon/singing/half hollow/5/8-7/8 razor honed on a barber/Norton/ SANDPAPER!/NEWSPAPER!/Col. Conk hone, and stropped it up nice on a Tony Miller/Linen/balsa wood/Dovo strop! And I've gotten bad shaves from any combination of the above equipment too.

One thing we don't emphasize enough is mentorship. The guys who I see on here that get it, and get it quick, are the ones that visit someone else and SEE what its all about.

Now that's an excellent idea. Is there anyone in the Greater Toronto Area of the vicinity who knows what he's doing with both the hone and the strop?
Even though I got my Pakistani to shave, I'd still like to learn from a master, especially once my new e-bay purchase arrives from England. (*) Any takers?

(*) Nenad helped me pick my new baby out and has my eternal gratitude