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Why Don't You Use A Straight Razor?

I do use the SRs occasionally, but not often. I just must do too many facial contortions to get a close shave on the chin and mustache areas, so I lose patience.

As far as maintenance, I started with honemeister-sharpened blades (usually) and kept them up with a Straight Razor Designs wide strop and a Spyderco Ultra Fine ceramic hone when I would notice the blade tugging.
 
What is also forgotten by most, is that straight razors were designed to be operated by one person in order to shave another person. The classic barbershop nostalgia of a skilled barber shaving his client.

It's just dangerous to make it a DIY job: you're in a wet and slippery environment, sometimes using your non-dominant hand while looking in a mirror under mostly non ideal light. I am not surprised so many SR users report nicks, bad cuts or even worse! With this in mind, think of the humble safety razor. It was invented for a reason... Agree or not, but that is my opinion.

P.s. I do admit that many SR's look cool, but that is the only positive thing I can say about them.
 
+1 ^^^ Well said !
As it is also forgotten or neglected that in old times -before the DE /SE era - only few used a straight razor
to shave themselves .Most men just paid a visit to their local favourite barber , in order to have a shave .

But what do I know ...
Just rambling once again ..
 
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Probably the upkeep/honing. As a busy professional with 3 little kids, decent size garden, etc....don’t feel there’s much room to add upkeep. I wish I had a buddy in town I could borrow and try one but I’m the only person I know, outside the forums, who even uses DE.
 
What is also forgotten by most, is that straight razors were designed to be operated by one person in order to shave another person. The classic barbershop nostalgia of a skilled barber shaving his client.

It's just dangerous to make it a DIY job: you're in a wet and slippery environment, sometimes using your non-dominant hand while looking in a mirror under mostly non ideal light. I am not surprised so many SR users report nicks, bad cuts or even worse! With this in mind, think of the humble safety razor. It was invented for a reason... Agree or not, but that is my opinion.

P.s. I do admit that many SR's look cool, but that is the only positive thing I can say about them.

Forgot to add that I did use a straight for some months a few years ago.

What I remember: SR I bought was a good quality Solingen made razor that was not shave-ready when I got it new. Going to Antwerp and buying an Ardennes Coticule yellow stone plus some other even finer stone that was recommended, a strop, honing paste. Then getting home and first having to flatten the Belgian stone with sanding paper. Then sharpening the razor as per instructions. Stropping the thing. First few shave were bloodbaths because of poor technique.

Then I got better after a few shaves. Razor though couldn't pass the hair test so was technically not as sharp as it should be. Going back to stone and strop. Not much better. This repeated itself for a few months. Best shave was 'so-so' at best. Took me sometimes over half an hour of concentration to get a not really great shave. Small nicks and cuts persisted all the while. Someday towards of these the end of these few months, for some reason, I picked up my Merkur DE. Great shave, zero hassle. I was done with the nonsense and sold my whole SR kit to a considerable loss. Thank you very much,this is not for me.
 
Ralf Aust SRs are indeed great, but you can find a better modern product - Koraat. It's not by a long shot, though. Both fantastic razors, but Koraat is second to none.
I will need to try one one day. Admittedly, I am a bit of an RA fan boy. They are the best razors I have personally used so far and his shop is about 10km from my home town. I think RA excels in his fit, finishing, steel quality, bevel angle, and choice of scale materials. I prefer the look and feel of natural scales. It’s fair to say that the RA designs are fairly safe and traditional. To some this may be boring but I like the traditional look. What would you say makes the Korrat so good and better than the RA? They are certainly getting lots of love at the moment.

Aesthetically the No. 14 looks very nice. The problem is that it’s way to big for me. I like my razors in the 5/8 - 6/8” range. If Koraat ever brings out a No. 13 or 12, I could be tempted.
 
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What would you say makes the Korrat so good and better than the RA?
To be fair, I'd say we're talking nuances here, so it's probably subjective.

To me, it's the looks and conversations with independent experts, before I bought mine.

Admittedly, I didn't know much about either, other than both are Eropen, small artisans and have their blanks made in Solingen, then further craft them and I was sold. I wanted top notch, buy once, cry once. I had no interest in experimenting with GDs and alike from China and India.

So, I talked to Dr Matt, who BTW is a great guy, and his advice made me go for the Koraat.

That's my story.
 
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The other reason is I heard shavettes are the least forgiving form of wet shaving, so that's what I use. I figured if I can develop the necessary skill with one of those then everything else should be trivial skill wise. Like learned to drive on a stick.
This is true. My first "straight" was a Parker SRX shavette that uses half DE blades. It's a nasty device, I never liked it. When I transitioned to a real SR, it was admittedly much easier to shave with.

I get terrific shaves with my k capt j and AC SS (very different techniques, though.)
I too have a Feather AC SS and the only difference I can report is due to mine being Japanese style non-folding one. Other than that I can't detect any difference. If it were a folding one, it'd be identical to any other SR holding and motion wise (aka technique).
 
I too have a Feather AC SS and the only difference I can report is due to mine being Japanese style non-folding one. Other than that I can't detect any difference. If it were a folding one, it'd be identical to any other SR holding and motion wise (aka technique).
I find that the SS requires a different techniques to accomplish an effective ATG pass as the bump prevent ultra shallow angles of attack. My SS requires that I apply a bit more pressure to the bump to cause it to stand the hair up enough to cut ATG comfortably, rather than the usual 'ultra light and just obtuse enough to cut hair' approach that is the common technical application to pretty much every other straight...try it.

WTG and XTG passes, however, this does not apply. YMMV
 
I find that the SS requires a different techniques to accomplish an effective ATG pass as the bump prevent ultra shallow angles of attack. My SS requires that I apply a bit more pressure to the bump to cause it to stand the hair up enough to cut ATG comfortably, rather than the usual 'ultra light and just obtuse enough to cut hair' approach that is the common technical application to pretty much every other straight...try it.

WTG and XTG passes, however, this does not apply. YMMV
I think this will depend on the blade you use.

I use Pro Supers and when I go ATG, I stretch my skin as mush as possible, by puling it upwards from my cheekbone, this way lifting the whiskers maximally, making them protrude out of the skin if you wish; and then I shave ATG with the spine almost touching the skin, so as flat as possible in order to catch the hair. I think it's possible as Pro Suppers are wider. I haven't tried other AC blades, but I do think the longer blade exposure makes it possible to use it as flat as a traditional SR.
 
Primarily the upkeep requirements. I went through a knife hobby phase a while back and bought knives in various exotic steels and went down the sharpening rabbit hole. Spent loads of money on stones and gear before accepting that sharpening and honing are boring tasks.

I have been eyeing shavettes, though.
 
Not knowing your financial situation, I can appreciate that start-up cost may be a burden for you:

Traditional SR

SR $10​
Lapping films & substrate $20​
Paper strop 1¢​
Maintenance also takes time; about an hour once and once only to initially set the bevele and refine the edge up to 1um on lapping film, 1 to 2 minutes each shave for stropping, and about 15 minutes once every three to six months to refresh the edge on the lapping films.

Newspaper works just fine as a leather strop alternative. It's also cheap and readily available.

Then there are the shavette type SR's; start-up can be as low as $2 to $5, no maintenance other than replacing the blade every week or two, and no strop required.

Now I am starting to not believe at lot of the reasons given in this thread.
Can you point me to the lapping films and substrates? I have one SR at home, but I put a little chip in it ..don't ask me how. I am kinda guy that want to learn how to maintain his tools at home.
 
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