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1905 book on shaving

I came across this book in an online library which I thought some of you may appreciate so I am posting the link for you guys.

Mods - apologies if this book does not belong on this page but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

Anyway here's the link: Shaving made easy; what the man who shaves ought to know .. : 20th century correspondence school, New York. [from old catalog] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/shavingmadeeasyw0020th/page/n3/mode/2up?q=shaving+

Enjoy.
Ubert
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I came across this book in an online library which I thought some of you may appreciate so I am posting the link for you guys.

Mods - apologies if this book does not belong on this page but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

Anyway here's the link: Shaving made easy; what the man who shaves ought to know .. : 20th century correspondence school, New York. [from old catalog] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/shavingmadeeasyw0020th/page/n3/mode/2up?q=shaving+

Enjoy.
Ubert

It's a well known document here, but a lot of the newer guys probably haven't seen it.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I should caution new members from accepting every word of this document as state of the art gospel truth. There is much of what we would currently consider misinformation in those 98 pages because more information is available and shared today than 120 years ago, and tools, materials, and methods have changed. For its day, this book was very helpful, I am sure. Certainly it is interesting to compare our understanding of the razor, whiskers, lather, honing and stroping, to what was understood or misunderstood back then.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Great read thanks for posting. I’m going to try a lather hone tomorrow.
Lather + Lots of Laps + gradually diminishing pressure to the point of losing contact with the stone = an edge about one step above the stone you are using. Usually takes around 300 laps. At the end it should feel like the razor is just swishing through the lather and not even touching the hone. Works on synthetic stones, naturals, film, even barber hones. Not balsa, though. The lather trick can be a real game changer for someone with only up to 8k stones, as an example.

Some old school guys would rub lather into their strops, too. I am on the fence on that one.
 
Lather + Lots of Laps + gradually diminishing pressure to the point of losing contact with the stone = an edge about one step above the stone you are using. Usually takes around 300 laps. At the end it should feel like the razor is just swishing through the lather and not even touching the hone. Works on synthetic stones, naturals, film, even barber hones. Not balsa, though. The lather trick can be a real game changer for someone with only up to 8k stones, as an example.

Some old school guys would rub lather into their strops, too. I am on the fence on that one.
I read the lather on the strop bit in the book posted and was thinking of trying it. I am using one of the frowned upon cheap strops off amazon. It seems quite rough. Being the only strop I ever really looked at... IDK if it is or not, but seems that way. When new it did not seem to have much "stick" or draw or what ever to it. After a bit of oil a time or 2 and lots of hand rubbing and general use, it is smoothing out some and softening a bit. Still seems quite hard and "slick" to me. It does make a noticeable difference in my edge however, so I am reluctant to mess with it much. But I have had the question "If better can be achieved is good ever enough" presented to me so many times that it is hard to be content lol

I have read up on strops quite a bit and am leaning towards getting one from this tonymiller, just have to do it I suppose. And figure out where lol
 
Lather + Lots of Laps + gradually diminishing pressure to the point of losing contact with the stone = an edge about one step above the stone you are using. Usually takes around 300 laps. At the end it should feel like the razor is just swishing through the lather and not even touching the hone. Works on synthetic stones, naturals, film, even barber hones. Not balsa, though. The lather trick can be a real game changer for someone with only up to 8k stones, as an example.

Some old school guys would rub lather into their strops, too. I am on the fence on that one.
Great thanks for that, so you make a lather up in a bowl say and lay some on the surface? Do you re-apply as you go or finish with what you began with?
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Great thanks for that, so you make a lather up in a bowl say and lay some on the surface? Do you re-apply as you go or finish with what you began with?
Keep refreshing the lather layer as necessary. You can also face lather, if you have a nice big badger brush, and just use the leftover product in the brush. Give it a go and you will figure it out.

Just so you understand what you are trying to achieve, the lather forms a buffer layer between hone and razor, which reduces scratch depth. Only a slight reduction, when using normal pressure, but as you lighten up on the pressure, the lather provides more and more separation. Now when you reduce the contact pressure and scratch depth, you are cutting much slower and that's why so many laps and why you don't just go by feedback as normally done. But with reduced scratch depth you are also creating a finer surface on the bevel and therefore a finer, straighter line where the two bevel faces intercept and a tighter and more refined apex. It is sort of a balancing act, the pressure reduction. Sort of like mastering dilucot. When you can walk that pressure/laps tightrope perfectly you will sometimes amaze yourself with the result. Honestly, when you really nail it with a 12k Naniwa ir is almost like a Method edge. Of course you can also get incredible results on an arkie but better add a zero to the lap counts. And don't go in with unrealistic expectations. You should always get a significant edge improvement with the lather trick, but REALLY nailing it perfectly would be like Rebel Phillips achieving a perfect Olympic quality double back flip dismount from the balance beam. In other words, many, many attempts for each perfect "10". But it can be done. A nice dragon to chase, if you are into that.
 
Keep refreshing the lather layer as necessary. You can also face lather, if you have a nice big badger brush, and just use the leftover product in the brush. Give it a go and you will figure it out.

Just so you understand what you are trying to achieve, the lather forms a buffer layer between hone and razor, which reduces scratch depth. Only a slight reduction, when using normal pressure, but as you lighten up on the pressure, the lather provides more and more separation. Now when you reduce the contact pressure and scratch depth, you are cutting much slower and that's why so many laps and why you don't just go by feedback as normally done. But with reduced scratch depth you are also creating a finer surface on the bevel and therefore a finer, straighter line where the two bevel faces intercept and a tighter and more refined apex. It is sort of a balancing act, the pressure reduction. Sort of like mastering dilucot. When you can walk that pressure/laps tightrope perfectly you will sometimes amaze yourself with the result. Honestly, when you really nail it with a 12k Naniwa ir is almost like a Method edge. Of course you can also get incredible results on an arkie but better add a zero to the lap counts. And don't go in with unrealistic expectations. You should always get a significant edge improvement with the lather trick, but REALLY nailing it perfectly would be like Rebel Phillips achieving a perfect Olympic quality double back flip dismount from the balance beam. In other words, many, many attempts for each perfect "10". But it can be done. A nice dragon to chase, if you are into that.

I have been using soapy water (e.g. couple of pumps of dish soap in a 95% water solution) with my black Ark. It does make things pretty slick. Does using lather take it another notch up?
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I have been using soapy water (e.g. couple of pumps of dish soap in a 95% water solution) with my black Ark. It does make things pretty slick. Does using lather take it another notch up?
Maybe. Depends on your dish soap solution's viscosity. Dish soap does work pretty good, after all.
 
I came across this book in an online library which I thought some of you may appreciate so I am posting the link for you guys.

Mods - apologies if this book does not belong on this page but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

Anyway here's the link: Shaving made easy; what the man who shaves ought to know .. : 20th century correspondence school, New York. [from old catalog] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/shavingmadeeasyw0020th/page/n3/mode/2up?q=shaving+

Enjoy.
Ubert


I'd also like to suggest that you take a bit of a break from specialized literature and turn your attention to the book 'A Streetcar Named Desire' by Tennessee Williams, which has impressed me a great deal lately. My father encouraged me to go to eduzaurus.com/free-essay-samples/a-streetcar-named-desire/ and read about it. I liked the description so much that I decided to read it.
It's a good book, I read it once.
 
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