Thread: "Shave Ready" in the Classifieds

I think there should be some sort of standard of what shave ready means. Right now, it doesnt mean much IMO. A razor I have bought from the classifieds here, that was described as "shave ready" wasnt shave ready. It felt rough and didnt remove the whiskers that well. It wasnt dull, it didnt need bevel setting, but it was not shave ready.
But I'm a newbie, and people on here tell me I dont know what shave ready is since this was one of my first razors. I have bad technique, dont know how to lather, my brush is made out of spaghetti, my soap is crap, bla bla bla. I think you guys are confusing "newbie" and "stupid". No offence. Keep a 30 degree angle and move the razor down your cheek without pressure - how hard can that be? We're talking assessing basic sharpness, not getting the best shave of your life with your first razor. Anyway, I sent the razor to Bart who agreed it wasnt shave ready.

Right now, I dont consider a razor in the classfieds "shave ready" unless it comes from a honemeister, irrespective of what the description says. I agree with Ray that some sort of standard should be implemented in order to provide newbies with truly shave ready razors. Newbies are important, they're the ones who will keep the tradition up and get the word out; we must take every possible step to make their first experience a good one. There's little point in welcoming and helping them out in the forums and doing work on digg.com, do search engine optimization and what not if we then sell them razors inaccurately described as shave ready. When I first came here, I expected to cut myself with a straight razor, not to get a (relatively) dull one.

Obviously, there are a lot more people than the 5 or so honemeisters in the classifieds who are able to get a razor truly shave ready. How does a newbie know that the razor he's looking at in the classifieds is from one such person? - He doesnt, there's no way to tell. Granted, you could read all the posts in the honing forum and you'd probably find that member X, who owns 20 hones, 2 microscopes, 3 strops, paddle strops, etc. will probably be able to get the razor truly shave ready, but that's not a practical solution for a newbie to quickly find out who he's buying from. Perhaps yet another small logo could be added to the 10 or so currently found under people's usernames that will explain that the member is actually able to hone razors to a shave ready state?

Originally Posted by Cornelius

Perhaps yet another small logo could be added to the 10 or so currently found under people's usernames that will explain that the member is actually able to hone razors to a shave ready state?

There are way more than 10 people who have this ability. How would you pick the 10, or 100, or 1000 for that manner?

Since I am yet to find a qualified member willing to do certifications, let's try to be objective instead.
Since sharpness level is a continuum where does one draw the line between shave-ready and not? Let's just make it as simple as possible - the most important number is the width of the edge. And to add one more number which could somewhat correlate with smoothness, let's have the maximum depth of 'chips' or 'teeth' on the edge (a third number would be theh depth of the lateral groves, etc...).
A good electron microscope will quantify these even though most people don't have access to or know how to use one, but in principle this is doable. Would anybody be willing to specify these numbers, please?

I also find that for me stropping alone makes a difference between shave-ready and shave-unready razor, so would we define these on a stropped edge or on unstropped edge.

On my first try, my razor removed hair but it wasn't either close, or very smooth feeling. Definitely worse than my used cartridges. But few shaves later the same exact razor was performing significantly better.
Oh, and I have actually damaged an edge wih poor prep and technique.
This removing hair at 30 degrees on a cheek, etc. is totally bogus criterion - different hair, different skin, different preparation make orders of magnitude difference.

I don't think the goal of SRP should be to provide people with shave-ready razors. I think we do pretty good job with providing support and troubleshoot various problems, but at the end of the day everybody has to figure this on their own.
The fact of life is that if you don't learn to hone your razors to your satisfaction you will have to find somebody else whose edges you like sufficiently.

It's a catch-22, but I don't see any easy way around it, in fact I think that the $20-$30 pricetag on finding Lynn's idea of shave-rediness is really not that prohibitive, at least not in US where most of our membership resides.

Originally Posted by gugi

There are way more than 10 people who have this ability.

I would think that there are over 100, probably several hundred. Why are you saying that there are over 10 people who can get razors shave ready?

How about another classification for razors offered for sale? Something like, "used for shaving by seller." In the spirit of of these various fora someone could even create an nifty acronym for that condition. It would indicate that the seller was marketing a razor that he shaved with, successfully and comfortably, but was selling the razor for reasons other than its being unsuitable for its assumed purpose.

Inspirations are so exciting

You guys act like it is some special skill to be able to sharpen a razor. While it may be a skill, it certainly isn't special. Sure, some folks can make a razor sharper than others, but overall, anyone can make a razor shave ready. I like Bruce's post best. Since everyone wants to argue about what the term shave ready means, SSW, "Seller Shaved With" is nice to get around the finicky nature of some folks.

I sharpened another razor last night and got a really nice shave from it this morning. Maybe not as nice as a professional could make it, but I'm going to list it as shave ready in the classifieds anyway. If it'll shave my face comfortably, I consider it shave ready.

It seems like we might just have to take one another's word for it. Maybe we need a digital handshake of some sort?

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I sharpened another razor last night and got a really nice shave from it this morning. Maybe not as nice as a professional could make it, but I'm going to list it as shave ready in the classifieds anyway. If it'll shave my face comfortably, I consider it shave ready.

It seems like we might just have to take one another's word for it. Maybe we need a digital handshake of some sort?

At the end of the day, I think this is all we can reasonably do.

Jordan

Originally Posted by Bruce

How about another classification for razors offered for sale? Something like, "used for shaving by seller." In the spirit of of these various fora someone could even create an nifty acronym for that condition. It would indicate that the seller was marketing a razor that he shaved with, successfully and comfortably, but was selling the razor for reasons other than its being unsuitable for its assumed purpose.

Inspirations are so exciting

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I sharpened another razor last night and got a really nice shave from it this morning. Maybe not as nice as a professional could make it, but I'm going to list it as shave ready in the classifieds anyway. If it'll shave my face comfortably, I consider it shave ready.

It seems like we might just have to take one another's word for it. Maybe we need a digital handshake of some sort?

Two great thinkers, Bruce and Lee. I applaud there commonsense ideas.


Long live commonsense


Charlie

Originally Posted by Ditch Doc

You guys act like it is some special skill to be able to sharpen a razor. While it may be a skill, it certainly isn't special. Sure, some folks can make a razor sharper than others, but overall, anyone can make a razor shave ready. I like Bruce's post best. Since everyone wants to argue about what the term shave ready means, SSW, "Seller Shaved With" is nice to get around the finicky nature of some folks.

Yeah.

Some people are always going to hone razors better than others, but doing it well isn't some form of witchcraft or anything. You watch an instructional video, you learn the do's and do not's and then you refine your technique. Ta-da.

Lynn and other official honemeisters, whoever they may be, probably get enough crap in the mail as it is. Do they really want to be bothered further with a hodgepodge of razors from around the world just so they can give them the okay? *Shrug* I don't know.

Then there's the hassle of having to mail them back. I know that'd get on my nerves. Or would it become customary for the "sample razors" to be offered up to the honemeisters as a token of respect? You know...Godfather style. A straight razor shaving Payola of sorts? Or worse, can we be certain that wrapping the razors in some greenbacks won't undermine the whole process! And! How are the honemeisters supposed to ascertain whether the sender honed the razors themselves or not? Maybe they'd be willing to contract some free-agent edge Guru in order to send in his work and be granted this PhD in sharpening?

If this were enacted, maybe these worries would come to light and in a year from now, the new standard for the title would be travelling to Lynn's house for a spiritual honing journey, where the applicant will sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room by night and endure test after rigorous test during the day! Time trials, blindfolded honing and stone recognition, etc, etc!

No, this is a slippery slope to disaster!

Oh, and what if the razors they receive aren't up to snuff? Would they feel an obligation to hone them properly, or would they just be sent back as-is?

It sounds to me like a possible risk to the senior honemeister's reputation. As someone mentioned, the face prep for a shave can make or break the experience, regardless of how sharp a razor may be. I'm sure there are tons of cases where newbies have received perfectly shave-ready razors in the mail, mucked up the edge on their new strops they don't know how to use and then had horrible shaves, blaming the razor instead of their lack of skill.