Thread: Want advice on scything/guillotine stroke

I think both strokes are the same,Is a downward sideways sliceing motion,IMO the most efficiant way to cut whiskers.
BUT,is a learning curve of sorts,The timeing of the motion has to be perfect or the blood will flow.
Practice with a butterknife,easy to learn.

I guess I make a little more distinction between them. If you think of the actual guillotine the blade came straight down with the edge angled. That angle causes a slicing cut on the whisker, not any side movement of the blade. The scything has a rotational aspect to it and some movement of the blade directionally. Of the two I like the guillotine the best and probably because it's the safest. I use the scything some, mostly on AGT, but some of my most memorable blood letting came from the scything stroke misapplied.

Regards,

Howard

Originally Posted by SirStropalot

I guess I make a little more distinction between them. If you think of the actual guillotine the blade came straight down with the edge angled. That angle causes a slicing cut on the whisker, not any side movement of the blade. The scything has a rotational aspect to it and some movement of the blade directionally. Of the two I like the guillotine the best and probably because it's the safest. I use the scything some, mostly on AGT, but some of my most memorable blood letting came from the scything stroke misapplied.

I agree completely with your description of "guillotine" and "scything" strokes. Of the two, I prefer the scything stroke, and (like you) use it primarily when going ATG (but also with XTG on my neck).