Thread: Toe-leading X pattern

Originally Posted by English

I can not see any advantage in changing the methodologies that have been developed and used over centuries.

Nobody I know shaves with the toe leading. You shave with the heel leading and with a downward (or upward or sideways) sawing stroke. Well actually you can shave however you like, I'm just talking about the "normal/natural" way folks shave.

Have you ever tried to saw a piece of wood with the toe leading. (Western type saws).

The X pattern with the heel leading puts a scratch pattern that allows a sawing type action as you draw the blade down the face. Toe leading doesn't do this. It does the reverse and that will give a less comfortable shave.

The stropping process (cleaning with leather) should also be with the heel leading. This allows the fine nap on the leather to open the teeth on the blades edge and remove any oxidation by brushing it off the edge and helping the edge to be smoother thereby and realigned. Heel leading forces the nap through the teeth giving a better scrubbing/cleaning action than say toe leading that just goes with the flow and doesn't release the rust so effectively.

The process of honing and stropping is designed to put a serrated cutting edge at a 45 degree angle to the cutting surface and present the face with a smooth edge that glides effortlessly over the skin which has been made tender by the exfoliating action of the cutting edge cutting away the stubble and any loose dead skin.

This is not my perceived wisdom, but just a summary of the many descriptions I have read in barbers manuals, that all explain the process in a similar manner.

It makes total sense to me at least.

You seem to have your facts a bit mixed up there imo. All you recommend goes against all that I have read and learnt over these many yrs, as others here have pointed out. That aside, if you achieve a good shaving edge with the methods you use then this reflects the general theme that there are no rules, only guides.

PuFF

Originally Posted by kevint

I mentioned teeth earlier, but I know there are no teeth.

Bart, in your drawings on the effects of the bbw garnets it looks like you have drawn teeth- but you know there are no teeth!

Why do we keep thinking there are teeth? Is it because it feels like teeth grabbing the hair

Yes, I realize that. In that tread I was trying to understand how different honing particles might affect the shape of the bevel apex differently. I only considered the abrasive component of honing. As Verhoeven pointed out in his great paper, there's also another principle at work during honing. I believe he calls it "plastic deformation" or someting like that (I don't have acces to the paper right now). My drawings only dealt with abrasive action, in a very crude way, I might add. I confess that they are of not much practical use. Maybe, just maybe, they show why a hones with round particles (garnets) don't create wire edges. What else is a wire edge, than an edge with teeth?

Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

Maybe, just maybe, they show why a hones with round particles (garnets) don't create wire edges. What else is a wire edge, than an edge with teeth?

Let's commission that microscope again then to show us what a wire edge looks like!

Originally Posted by timberrr59

Check this out: J.R. Torrey Shaving Instructions recomments SHAVING Diagonally POINT TO HEEL! I was believing that NO ONE did this!

Several months ago when I first began honing (trying to hone), I read a short instruction sheet (maybe that one?) which described both honing with leading toe, stropping with leading toe, and shaving with leading heel