Thread: Have you ever tried to shave with a knife or anything else than a straight razor?

Dear Razorfriends,

I have been shaving with a straight razor for quite some years and wanted to try something "new". I took my 15 year old Czech Mikov knife of high quality steel and started honing and honing and honing to approx 15°, from 300 grain to 6000 grain. Then I stropped it with Solingen Red Paste and polished with Solingen black paste. I made the hairtest and it just jumped off the blade after slighthly touching it. Perfectly sharp - so I started shaving. And I was surprised... because of the tough and stiff blade, it was a really smooth shave with a BBS result. I therefore decided to put my DOVO aside for some time and "learn" to shave with this new shape of a "razor".

I would like to hear if some of you have ever made similar experiments and the experiences resulting from them. Or probably even about somebody regularly using his own self-nominated "razor". I´d love to hear about knifes, scissors and whatever possible - if possible, please with photo.

Here is a photo of the knife I used.




Thanks for sharing your experiences
Phreak

As a fun experiment one time I honed my Buck 110 "Folding Hunter" and had a nice shave with it. I've always maintained that a razor is nothing more than a specialized knife.

Cheers,
Jeff

Yup, obsidian. That was a bad idea, but it proved what I theorized in the first place.

Obsidian? I think, this is the oldest razor existing. And what was the theory you have proven about? :-)

Its a terrible edge: rough, weak, and uneven in keenness. I wouldn't bother again. It was in response to another member here.

Personally my shaving experiments include only trying to shave with my first fake Pakistan razor
But I had seen video where Russian guy had shaved with kitchen knife, axe and a shovel, I'll try to find later and post it here