How to check the straight razor for sharpness?
I’d like to try shaving with a straight razor. I found one, and it seemed pretty sharp (cut the hair on my arm). However, when time came to shaving my face, it pretty much scraped off the shaving cream without really touching the beard. On a positive note, I didn’t cut myself! Unfortunately, I didn’t shave either. I sent the blade off to get professionally sharpened. But now I am curious, is there any way to tell how sharp the blade really is before trying to shave?
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With some practice, you can judge the sharpness of a blade by the way it nicks the ridges on your fingers. Again WITH SOME PRACTICE. if you do that wrong (particularly with a blade that’s much sharper than you think), you’ll give yourself a very clean but nasty cut.
The way I was taught to check the sharpness of a chisel after sharpening is to (ISYN) lick some of your arm hair, and shave with the chisel. Arms are a bit more durable than faces, so if you nick yourself it’s not the end of the world.
Several ways. One the sound it makes against the strop, it has very different pitch when the edge is really fine. Other than that, a small dry shave on arm or legs hairs. Straight razors have to be sharpened for every use. If the one you found didn’t come with a razor strop it will not be much use until you get one.
It could be that your technique was faulty although congrats on not drawing blood.
My dad taught me to tell the sharpness of a knife by brushing a fingertip (or thumb-tip) over the edge, SIDEWAYS. It’s like what @grumpyfish said, but less liable to cut you.
Side note on straight razors: it’s a knife so sharp it can slice right through your flesh before you know what’s going on, and you’re wiping it over the arteries in your throat.
Hueaaaah.
A little off, not directly answering, but the best ones are hollow ground to the point where the edge is flexible. You can also choose French or Spanish tipped if you like. The French cut has a concave cut-out on the front tip.
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