A rolled edge is said to be avoided while stropping, and to some extent, while honing. So, given that one is lifting the spine and sometimes exerting a very light pressure while shaving, why isn't a rolled edge the result? Or is it at times?--then rectified by stropping?
Rolling the Edge While Shaving?
- Thread starter Alum of Potash
- Start date
Unless your beard is as tough as hairs on gorilla's butt and your razor is made of tin instead of steel I do not think it is possible to roll the edge while shaving
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Or the technique is bad and the person is scraping as opposed to cutting the hair
- Thread starter
- #4
Maybe it has to do with the edge-first motion when shaving, rather than spine-first when stropping? Personally, I do not see much difference between taught skin and leather, apart from the former's regenerative properties.
Bad technique while shaving can dull or even wreck an edge very fast.
The edge on a straight razor is often ~0,5µ thick, obviously you won't need much pressure to roll or bend such a thin strip of metal, if the pressure is applied from the side, just like when you "scrape" of your beard.
The edge on a straight razor is often ~0,5µ thick, obviously you won't need much pressure to roll or bend such a thin strip of metal, if the pressure is applied from the side, just like when you "scrape" of your beard.
- Thread starter
- #6
Thanks, this seems to be a careful analysis. Haven't cut myself in a while during a shave, but there are moments where I am forced to increase the blade angle a bit (beneath my nostrils, my chin, the hollows beneath my jawline). So perhaps I'm scraping there, prematurely dulling the blade.
Hopefully your skin will move out of the way of the edge before it causes a rolled edge. Instead of a rolled edge, you'd end up with a cut.
As Honed says: too steep an angle, scraping instead of shaving will ruin your edge as surely as rolling it on a strop will.
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