Thread: Are round points safer?

Originally Posted by markevens

While both will cut you if you slide the blade parallell to the edge, with a spike you have to be careful of the tip even if you are not moving parallell. Does that make them significantly more dangerous? I don't think so. Plenty of men shave with spikes without cutting their face up.

I have a small face and narrow neck. I think it wouldn't be such a problem on the cheeks with a square point unless maybe I don't keep the edge flat enough. On the neck I have hollows between the adam's apple and neck. Would the point matter in this area?

The only time I significantly gashed my face was with a square point.

Now I neuter, blunt, or otherwise round off the tip of a square edge.

No gashes since then. Really, no significant cuts since then.

YMMV.

Originally Posted by binder

I have a small face and narrow neck. I think it wouldn't be such a problem on the cheeks with a square point unless maybe I don't keep the edge flat enough. On the neck I have hollows between the adam's apple and neck. Would the point matter in this area?

I have a narrow face/neck too. While the main razor I use is a round point, when I'm doing my neck I'm using the middle part of the blade, not the tip. So I don't see how a point would be any harder with my current technique.

Round points are the most dangerous razors for me. I can't tell where the edge ends and the useless dangling end starts. Everything else seems fine.

I think they are safer. Out of my four scares, two of them are from the point of one of my razors. Afterwords, I dulled the point and was much happier.

I dont think theres much difference TBH. I've cut myself just fine with pretty much every point out there. Barbers notch, Spanish point, spike point, round point, French point, dreadnought... I've caught myself with all of 'em!

Arguably a round point is better for a newbies but there are guys here who started out with one just fine, so I'd say get a decent razor you like the look of (whatever the point) and learn how to use it.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Yes. The true spike point is going to cut you. No doubt about it. Sooner or later, you will lose focus, and that point will dig out a chunk of your face.

You can cut yourself with round points too, but by eliminating that sharp point moving over your face, you eliminate a whole category of cuts. Other kinds of cuts can still happen, but you eliminate one, at least.

I very slightly round off all my spike points. Purists hate to see the "original" razor changed, but I'm a purist who thinks it's better for a razor to be used, and I refuse to stroke a spike over my face when i don't have to.

I don't need the scars. They don't heal cleanly when the spike has dug a chunk out of your cheek or neck, they re-cut easily long after you thought they were healed, and I see no virtue in them.

you guys who are way more handsome than me, you can afford a few scars on your face. But I frighten small animals and children just looking at them. I'm an unhandsome man, and I don't need a German Dueling Fraternity initiation scar to add to the effect.

Just my $.02, and I'm loving straight-shaving!

The gentleman from Kentucky hit the nail on the head IMHO. My daily shaver and favorite straight razor is a round point Henckels Friodur 7/8 for exactly this reason. I have square and Spanish points (with dulled tips) that I like too but the round point eliminates the potential damage caused by my ham-handedness.

The worst cuts I've gotten came from wonderful Doubl Duck spikes. I refuse to dull 'em but I don't really use 'em much anymore.

Nope. Round points are just as likely to cut you. Spike points, imo, are more likely to stab instead of cut.

If you do not pay attention shaving the round point will bite you, but I feel a lot safer shaving with a round point. It is mental, it seems that a square, spanish, french and other point like to bite my face, but the round is more forgiving. It is all in my head. Juan