Nine weeks into straight shaving, going great. Got a coti and I'm learning to hone my own. Still on the learning curve but I'm shaving with 3 blades I honed from scratch on Ebay acquisitions.
Although I aspire to sharper (keener) edges I've been please that I can get good shaves from my own edges free of irritation or problems. But, ever the self doubter, I realized a couple days ago that I haven't cut myself in a couple of weeks. On a couple of occasions I got sloppy and felt the skin bunch up and the blade start to bite but didn't get cut. So I started to wonder if I've been doing so well simply because my edges are not all that sharp and that the smooth shaves I think I have been getting are just wishful thinking. (yes, this can lead to neurotic over analyzing such as the 2 hours argument with friends I got into about whether the moon really looks larger when it is on the horizon or whether it just looks like it looks larger and so on....)
Yesterday upon rinsing and applying Clubman it became apparent that I had a cut on my upper lip right below my nose. Shaving below my nose is still a challenge. To get it smooth I have to come in with the blade parallel to the bottom of my septum and pivot the blade as it touches the skin in a sort of rotational scooping motion. Apparently I let the blade rest for an instant during that stroke and the edge did what a stationary straight edge does, it sank into my lip. I hadn't noticed it because like many cuts it was painless.
I was so proud, the edge I honed up was sharp
But I'm beginning to think the reputation for a coti edge to cut whiskers instead of flesh may not just be mythos and romance. Those other times when the blade started to bite would have rightfully ended in a cut but they did not.
Unlike some other posters I've seen on the boards, I find the best edge for cutting ripe tomatoes is not an uber sharp knife you could shave with, but rather a sharp knife with a little saw edge left. That saw edge initiates the cut through the tomato skin rapidly without pressure as you drag it lightly along the tomato and then the sharp edge cuts the pulp. I wonder what characteristics of the coti edge make it behave so differently on my face. I'd love to see some SEMs of edges made with different finishing techniques and compared with commercially made disposable blades. I found when I was DE shaving that there was much more to a good blade than simply sharp. The very sharp Feathers did a great job cutting my whiskers but left my face feeling as though I'd shaved with a living weasel. I preferred the less sharp, but more mellow red IPs over almost all others. It appears that same principle applies to straights, or maybe I'm just just a raw newby I am totally mistaken.
Although I aspire to sharper (keener) edges I've been please that I can get good shaves from my own edges free of irritation or problems. But, ever the self doubter, I realized a couple days ago that I haven't cut myself in a couple of weeks. On a couple of occasions I got sloppy and felt the skin bunch up and the blade start to bite but didn't get cut. So I started to wonder if I've been doing so well simply because my edges are not all that sharp and that the smooth shaves I think I have been getting are just wishful thinking. (yes, this can lead to neurotic over analyzing such as the 2 hours argument with friends I got into about whether the moon really looks larger when it is on the horizon or whether it just looks like it looks larger and so on....)
Yesterday upon rinsing and applying Clubman it became apparent that I had a cut on my upper lip right below my nose. Shaving below my nose is still a challenge. To get it smooth I have to come in with the blade parallel to the bottom of my septum and pivot the blade as it touches the skin in a sort of rotational scooping motion. Apparently I let the blade rest for an instant during that stroke and the edge did what a stationary straight edge does, it sank into my lip. I hadn't noticed it because like many cuts it was painless.
I was so proud, the edge I honed up was sharp
But I'm beginning to think the reputation for a coti edge to cut whiskers instead of flesh may not just be mythos and romance. Those other times when the blade started to bite would have rightfully ended in a cut but they did not.
Unlike some other posters I've seen on the boards, I find the best edge for cutting ripe tomatoes is not an uber sharp knife you could shave with, but rather a sharp knife with a little saw edge left. That saw edge initiates the cut through the tomato skin rapidly without pressure as you drag it lightly along the tomato and then the sharp edge cuts the pulp. I wonder what characteristics of the coti edge make it behave so differently on my face. I'd love to see some SEMs of edges made with different finishing techniques and compared with commercially made disposable blades. I found when I was DE shaving that there was much more to a good blade than simply sharp. The very sharp Feathers did a great job cutting my whiskers but left my face feeling as though I'd shaved with a living weasel. I preferred the less sharp, but more mellow red IPs over almost all others. It appears that same principle applies to straights, or maybe I'm just just a raw newby I am totally mistaken.
