I've shaved with just about everything from a pink disposable through various high tech electric razors to straight razors and knives. About the only time I got enthusiastic about shaving was when my electic razor gave out and so I had to get a barber shave on the way to work. I was pretty impressed with the use of a straight razor, and the job it did, and so got myself one and a stone and strop. So I'd use the straight razor or a safety razor, depending on how much time I'd got.
A few years ago when I became very interested in sharpness of knives I read a very neat little statement from Lee Valley Tools where in discussing sharpness of wood carving tools, they mentioned in typical understatement that they could take any razor blade and get it sharper - and of course they had the pictures to prove it. Being of enquiring mind I got their sharpening book out of the library. Sure enough it had the pictures! I did use some green buffing compound on cardboard to see if I could get my straight razor into better shape and it surely did seem to give a noticeable improvement. I wondered why since a properly stropped straight razor is darned sharp to begin with. I was left with three questions and no electron microscope to help me answer them:
1. Could I get a razor blade sharper? The advertising for many suggests that nothing could be sharper.
2. How would poor old microscope-less me actually know?
3. Would I care?
What got me interested in razors again, lately, was this article:
http://mse.iastate.edu/files/verhoeven/KnifeShExps.pdf
The bit that really interested me among all the pictures were the ones of the straight razor, first after being normally stropped for a decade or two, then after some work with buffing compound. That explained why mine worked better, but still didn't really answer the questions. In some discussion, though, I'd mentioned playing with my father's razor as a kid and that it was some sort of safety razor with stone and strop built into the box, all operated by some neat machinery. A few contributed pics later and I found out that it was a Rolls. Well when I checked ebay and found that I could get a mint one for $6, I couldn't resist. At the same time in looking at ancient razors I found out about the Durham Duplex - a straight razor with guard, removable blade and even a stropping attachment. Soon a couple of those were on the way.....
Here the stropping attachment is on the blade, and the guards are above:
The old fossil now being being surrounded by a stack of even older shaving stuff, I got to work.
I wasn't too happy with the results of stropping the "new old stock" Durham blades. I had answered question #2 by figuring that my straight razor would easily slice freely held bathroom tissue, and so should the Durham blades. Everything came together when after a bunch of stropping with green buffing compound I gave the blade a few light swipes of newspaper. Suddenly they'd slice better than the straight razor. Shaving then went very well and actually better than with a new disposable.
Next up was the Rolls. I'd treated the leather with neatsfoot oil and GBC but it still wasn't great. I used a diagonal stropping stroke with the blade in the handle, and followed up with stropping likewise on newspaper. It beat a multiblade disposable too. I found it remarkable that a few years ago some people would pay lots for spare parts - and yet now there are lots of Rolls razors on ebay which have only been used once. The trick is that you have to take a few extra steps over the included stropper.
Basically I'd found that replaceable blades in the Durham could be sharpened to be provable sharper in slicing tissue, simply by stropping on paper. The single lifetime lifetime blade on the Rolls could be sharpened to much the same. You can't do much tissue slicing with the Rolls due to the guard - but since it will beat a modern razor...
In the meantime I'd bought some blades for a Schick injector, but those were 30 or 40 years old and so improving them didn't prove much. Such is ebay and cheapness (!) So I got a Gillette adjustable off ebay and some real new Gillette wonder platinum blades. Those totally failed at slicing tissue and so got stropped too until they did. then that rig worked well, too
My idea of intense shaving prep is shaving after having a shower, and using whatever soap is handy. Naturally in the midst of learning about shaving technique I'd heard that good shaving soap is a must and should only be applied with a real badger brush. Since I had one of those, I went and got a cheap Wilkinson imitation one and even a Wilkinson Sword shaving bowl full of shaving soap that seems to work great but sure smells strange. The bad news is that while person may be able to shave for life with a $6 Rolls or $10 Durham, or even a cheap straight razor - only a badger brush seems to work for applying lather.
Myths like singing razors - they do- can come later if anyone is interested. Just note before rushing off to acquire old safety razors like Rolls or Durhams, that safety had a different meaning back then.
A few years ago when I became very interested in sharpness of knives I read a very neat little statement from Lee Valley Tools where in discussing sharpness of wood carving tools, they mentioned in typical understatement that they could take any razor blade and get it sharper - and of course they had the pictures to prove it. Being of enquiring mind I got their sharpening book out of the library. Sure enough it had the pictures! I did use some green buffing compound on cardboard to see if I could get my straight razor into better shape and it surely did seem to give a noticeable improvement. I wondered why since a properly stropped straight razor is darned sharp to begin with. I was left with three questions and no electron microscope to help me answer them:
1. Could I get a razor blade sharper? The advertising for many suggests that nothing could be sharper.
2. How would poor old microscope-less me actually know?
3. Would I care?
What got me interested in razors again, lately, was this article:
http://mse.iastate.edu/files/verhoeven/KnifeShExps.pdf
The bit that really interested me among all the pictures were the ones of the straight razor, first after being normally stropped for a decade or two, then after some work with buffing compound. That explained why mine worked better, but still didn't really answer the questions. In some discussion, though, I'd mentioned playing with my father's razor as a kid and that it was some sort of safety razor with stone and strop built into the box, all operated by some neat machinery. A few contributed pics later and I found out that it was a Rolls. Well when I checked ebay and found that I could get a mint one for $6, I couldn't resist. At the same time in looking at ancient razors I found out about the Durham Duplex - a straight razor with guard, removable blade and even a stropping attachment. Soon a couple of those were on the way.....
Here the stropping attachment is on the blade, and the guards are above:
The old fossil now being being surrounded by a stack of even older shaving stuff, I got to work.
I wasn't too happy with the results of stropping the "new old stock" Durham blades. I had answered question #2 by figuring that my straight razor would easily slice freely held bathroom tissue, and so should the Durham blades. Everything came together when after a bunch of stropping with green buffing compound I gave the blade a few light swipes of newspaper. Suddenly they'd slice better than the straight razor. Shaving then went very well and actually better than with a new disposable.
Next up was the Rolls. I'd treated the leather with neatsfoot oil and GBC but it still wasn't great. I used a diagonal stropping stroke with the blade in the handle, and followed up with stropping likewise on newspaper. It beat a multiblade disposable too. I found it remarkable that a few years ago some people would pay lots for spare parts - and yet now there are lots of Rolls razors on ebay which have only been used once. The trick is that you have to take a few extra steps over the included stropper.
Basically I'd found that replaceable blades in the Durham could be sharpened to be provable sharper in slicing tissue, simply by stropping on paper. The single lifetime lifetime blade on the Rolls could be sharpened to much the same. You can't do much tissue slicing with the Rolls due to the guard - but since it will beat a modern razor...
In the meantime I'd bought some blades for a Schick injector, but those were 30 or 40 years old and so improving them didn't prove much. Such is ebay and cheapness (!) So I got a Gillette adjustable off ebay and some real new Gillette wonder platinum blades. Those totally failed at slicing tissue and so got stropped too until they did. then that rig worked well, too
My idea of intense shaving prep is shaving after having a shower, and using whatever soap is handy. Naturally in the midst of learning about shaving technique I'd heard that good shaving soap is a must and should only be applied with a real badger brush. Since I had one of those, I went and got a cheap Wilkinson imitation one and even a Wilkinson Sword shaving bowl full of shaving soap that seems to work great but sure smells strange. The bad news is that while person may be able to shave for life with a $6 Rolls or $10 Durham, or even a cheap straight razor - only a badger brush seems to work for applying lather.
Myths like singing razors - they do- can come later if anyone is interested. Just note before rushing off to acquire old safety razors like Rolls or Durhams, that safety had a different meaning back then.
Gonna follow your lead and bring them up to snuff.
