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Someone Explain Slant Razors To Me

So, I’m probably a moron but I don’t understand slant razors. How do they work? What is their advantage? Is the shaving technique different?
 
It's been written about quite a lot. In short, the torqued blade hits the whiskers at an angle, which contributes to easier cutting and less pressure on the skin. The end result is a smoother, more comfortable shave.

Technique is more or less the same, but you have to shave straight down and across so that the blade strikes the whiskers at an angle.
 
The head is slanted at an angle in relation to the handle; if you look at a photo of one you’ll see what they are. The purpose is so that the blade cuts the beard with a greater slicing motion which is somewhat more efficient - think of how a Guillotine’s angled blade slices rather than chops as it shaved the back of its customer’s neck. As for the technique, it’s exactly the same as a regular DE - you shave in straight strokes as you normally would; the slanted head applies the slicing motion. It’s supposed to replicate the old ‘Gillette slide’ technique.
 
Here’s a picture of my Razorock German 37 slant, from which you can see how the head is configured differently to a regular DE.

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Have you ever sliced a tomato? If you just force the knife through the tomato, it is a bit of a struggle getting a thin, even slice. You might even crush the tomato if your knife is not very sharp. Use the same knife in a slicing motion, now the tomato slices very easily without much effort.

Not all slants share the same geometry, BTW. Some, like the Merkur 37, twist the blade into a helix shape. This makes the thin steel blade more rigid, leading to a smoother shave.
 
The head is slanted at an angle in relation to the handle; if you look at a photo of one you’ll see what they are. The purpose is so that the blade cuts the beard with a greater slicing motion which is somewhat more efficient - think of how a Guillotine’s angled blade slices rather than chops as it shaved the back of its customer’s neck. As for the technique, it’s exactly the same as a regular DE - you shave in straight strokes as you normally would; the slanted head applies the slicing motion. It’s supposed to replicate the old ‘Gillette slide’ technique.


What is the 'Gillette slide'? I thought moving the blade in a direction other than straight led to cuts.
 
I'm not really in favour of the concept. You are really buggered if you are a lefty. Just personally . . . I'd not waste a dime on a slant. But that is just me. Please feel free to curse me at your leisure.
That's not true -- left-handed or right-handed, you still pull the razor in the same direction along the same path. Not everybody likes slants, that's fine.
 
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FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I'm not really in favour of the concept. You are really buggered if you are a lefty. Just personally . . . I'd not waste a dime on a slant. But that is just me. Please feel free to curse me at your leisure.
My dad was a lefty. EVERYTHING was backwards for the poor man. In skool he was of the age where they tried to cure him of that handicap. He was hard headed, so he just quit skool at 13 or 14, lol.

When he passed away us boys joked about how all his circular saw's cords were cut off at about 2ft long and electrical taped together. When he and I built our back porch he did it on the first cut with his brand new saw! He cussed, taped it together, and about an hour later he did it again! I sure miss that ole fart.
 
What is the 'Gillette slide'? I thought moving the blade in a direction other than straight led to cuts.
It’s an old technique suggested back in the day by Gillette, whereby the razor is moved in a more angled stroke across the skin than normal, but still keeping the blade level on the skin. So the head of the razor and the blade) stays level, but rather than move in a straight down direction, it goes at a slight angle.

This thread discusses it:


and YouTube has videos, I believe.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
It’s an old technique suggested back in the day by Gillette, whereby the razor is moved in a more angled stroke across the skin than normal, but still keeping the blade level 9n the skin. So the head of the razor stay level, but rather than move in a straight down direction, it goes at a slight angle.

This thread discusses it:


and YouTube has videos, I believe.
It gets easier the more you do it, and it might have helped back before the blades were not stainless steel.

But I don't think it makes much difference with the blades today.
 
I'm not much into the theory, but I can tell you that my RR German 37 seems to work well for me with pretty much every blade for me. I like to use it when I have more than a day or two of growth the wide gap between the blade and guard also means it pretty much never clogs, even if I only rinse a few times during each pass.

For me, it's what I use whenever I need a quick shave. I can do each pass much faster and without any thought whatsoever compared to any of my non-slants. It's definitely my, "plan landed two hours before work after I haven't shaved for work, time to quickly blast off a week of stubble while I rush to work" razor. However, this seems to be the opposite of what I've read from most posts here, so YMMV.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I'm not much into the theory, but I can tell you that my RR German 37 seems to work well for me with pretty much every blade for me. I like to use it when I have more than a day or two of growth the wide gap between the blade and guard also means it pretty much never clogs, even if I only rinse a few times during each pass.

For me, it's what I use whenever I need a quick shave. I can do each pass much faster and without any thought whatsoever compared to any of my non-slants. It's definitely my, "plan landed two hours before work after I haven't shaved for work, time to quickly blast off a week of stubble while I rush to work" razor. However, this seems to be the opposite of what I've read from most posts here, so YMMV.
You did a GREAT job of how I feel about my only slant. It's the one you described. I've said on here several times that I could shave blindfolded with it.

At the risk of banishment, I have to say I probably don't use it much because it's boring!
 
You did a GREAT job of how I feel about my only slant. It's the one you described. I've said on here several times that I could shave blindfolded with it.

At the risk of banishment, I have to say I probably don't use it much because it's boring!

I'm glad to hear it's the same for you. I thought I was crazy since pretty much every post was "watch out, it'll bite you!" Where my experience has been the exact opposite.


I have switched to mostly shaving with the 37 and now a dirt cheap Chinese shavette I got as a part of a hair cutting scissors set. Much more blade sensitive and takes me substantially more time to shave, but easily the closest and most irritation free shave I've ever had.

It's been a super busy week with work and I haven't shaved since Monday, so trying to decide which one I'm going to go for this evening now that I have a breather. May go for the 37 just based on simple mindless ease.
 
Slant and torque (twist) are two different things with different benefits. I'm more dubious about the benefits of a pure slant but most "slanted" razors are also torqued. That twist has very real benefits in blade rigidity which no amount of technique is going to give you.

Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
I'm not really in favour of the concept. You are really buggered if you are a lefty. Just personally . . . I'd not waste a dime on a slant. But that is just me. Please feel free to curse me at your leisure.

OK. [grin]

Actually, if you're a "little-L" leftie you simply buy a slant that goes the other way. There were a couple. Doesn't seem to make much difference, though. Slants tend to shave better than regular DEs because many regular DEs cheap out on the design and don't hold blades all that well. But boy howdy they can make 'em look purty to get your money, can't they?

Some context for you: when slants were invented razor blades were carbon steel, not stainless. Stainless tends to have more stiffness than carbon steel, depending on alloy. A slant "back in the day" was an innovative engineering response to blades that needed to be bent and twisted within an inch of their lives in order to have any edge rigidity.

Slant razors work even better with stainless blades. However if you have a "tilted" slant you've basically got a regular DE with the handle on crooked. That can work just fine! It also has the advantage that one can produce an adjustable slant razor, like the Walbusch B5. Helical slants can't be adjusted, but they make up for that somewhat by adding another dimension of tension to the blade (the twist) for even more rigidity.

For the lefties and the Lefties out there, a tilted slant has the advantage that one side IS going the right way for you! The advantage for those who are Right all the time [snort] is that one side IS going the right way for you! It's so freekin' cool! A one-size-fits-all razor. I think they're great because I'm also ambidextrous. Sorry to pop your bubble on that one.

I prefer helical slants, although just slightly. I have seen razors (Peroni among others) that have an adjustable piece between the top of the handle and the bottom of the razor, that allows the user to set the head at any angle -- or none -- left or right. There are several ways to do that, but the end result is a tilted slant.

There are some companies out there producing regular DE razors that are engineered to put some serious clamp on the blade. Although I don't have one yet, the RazoRock BBS appears to be one of them. RazoRock also produces one of the best modern slants on the market, the helical Wunderbar.

Slants have somewhat of a reputation for being aggressive. That's a bit misleading. Some of them are, of course, and I put the Wunderbar right at the top of my personal list for that. But they don't have to be! There are a number of milder slants out there. The iKon X3, Parker Semi-Slant, Merkur 37/39, and the Above the Tie S1 and S2 are no more aggressive than a decent DE.

Those who use them love them. Those who don't use them have their own rabbit holes to go down. It's all good.

O.H.
 
So.. this is a really good example of YMMV... I have a pretty coarse but not especially dense beard and had been using a 34c as my daily driver. When I started working from home 5 years ago and only shaving 2x weekly the 34c couldn't keep up. I tried the 37c.. a slant version of the same razor and used it for a few years. It does a decent job with a corresponding decent amount of blade feel and was more irritating. I bit the bullet and spent the money on a Timeless .95 OC and the difference is pretty big... even closer shave than the slant... no irritation... less technique required compared to the 37c. Looking back I'd have to say that the slant wasn't the best option and was not the best for me.
 
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