What is hardest part of straight shaving?

[JeffE]

Think about how often you shave versus how often you hone, and you'll have to agree that honing is harder for the most basic of reasons - no one but Lynn Abrams and maybe a few other guys do it often enough to become true masters of it, while shaving and stropping are things we all do 250 or so times every year. When was the last year in which anyone here actually honed 250 razors? Not many hands going up, I see.

I happen to enjoy honing my own razors, although I know from paying others to do it for me occasionally that I have a LONG way to go. One way to "cheat" your razor into a sharper edge than your skills might produce is to use a really nice, hard finishing stone like an Escher, a CF or a Japanese stone, which is why I have lots of them. But the people who really know honing get a better edge with just off the shelf Naniwas or Nortons and a leather strop. God I would love too know how to hone like that.

 

[Shangas]

Another "hardest" thing is knowing how much stropping to do.

Sometimes I think I've done a good stropping and I end up cutting myself. Then I finally decided that too much is probably better than too little. I now strop between 50-100 strokes on my strop after each shave these days, after my last cut about a week ago. Today I had my best shave since that cut, so I think I'm doing something right.

 

[ccrowder]

The hardest part is convincing my wife to let me learn using the straight razor. While she was fine with the DE she was NOT fine when I told her I was learning the straight. Still working on getting her to let me continue =p

 

[natchez]

Another "hardest" thing is knowing how much stropping to do.

Sometimes I think I've done a good stropping and I end up cutting myself. Then I finally decided that too much is probably better than too little. I now strop between 50-100 strokes on my strop after each shave these days, after my last cut about a week ago. Today I had my best shave since that cut, so I think I'm doing something right.

My edges too get better with some more stropping, although that is a bit more than the 20 on linen and 50, or so on leather I do before and after.

The hardest part is convincing my wife to let me learn using the straight razor. While she was fine with the DE she was NOT fine when I told her I was learning the straight. Still working on getting her to let me continue =p

My wife also thinks I am nuts, but after 34 years she always thinks I am nuts. It took a new medicine cabinet for her and some shelves for the shaving stuff for me to get her happy with the whole straight thing. Good luck!

 

[Gustav]

Learning how to use the razor has been the most difficult for me as of yet however it is by no means impossible and it has turned out to be a skill that is great fun to learn.

Stropping has somehow come naturally or at least I have never really had any major issues with it.

I do not know much about honing but I am seriously looking in to it. It seems great to be able to create and maintain your own edges.

 

[volleykinginnc]

Absolutely THE hardest thing about straight shaving is convincing your wife you're not looking at porn in the bathroom, followed closely by convincing your friends that they are gay for not doing likewise.

 

[Bertilak]

For me it is no contest. Honing is the only truly difficult skill. At least I was able to pretty well master the actual shaving and the stropping. Never really did get honing to wok for me beyond barely adequate. I can shave with a razor I have honed but it is not a pleasant experience.

Like most fools I at first attributed my failures to inadequate tools. In an attempt to find a set of hones that "work", I amassed more hones than I need. Since I can't make *any* of them "work" I must reluctantly admit the problem is with me.

Of course I could ship a razor out to be professionally honed every couple of months but at $15-$20 plus $5 shipping each way I could be buying the latest multi-blade disposables as a way to *save* money!

 

[Muscles]

Convincing SWMBO that I really do need another 6 of everything related to shaving with a straight

 

[Drybonz]

That is why round point is best for learning. Very forgiving unlike square or spike.

I just got my first straight shave tonight, and I remember thinking a couple of times that I would have just cut my finger if this was a square point.

So I was happy that it was a round point.

 

[life2short1971]

I started with a square toe and Got myself good several times. My fingernails saved me more than once from bloodshed.

 

[TonyH]

I think it's the learning to shave that's the most difficult. You won't accidentally remove your ear while honing or stropping!

 

[Luc]

Stropping? Yes, I need to do this... I could wait but I rather do it now!

That's a weekly conversation but I don't get tired of it...