Ask Aaron Q/A: How to sharpen a straight razor for shaving
Philippa Lynch, from the UK, asks:
“Hi, Aaron, I bought a straight razor and a strop for my husband for Christmas - it is now clear that he needs more bits in order to sharpen the blade etc. Can you give me a list of essentials that I should have got then and could get now? Many thanks, Philippa”
AARON SAYS
“Mrs. Lynch,
A shaving guru I may be, but you have found my weakness. Straight razor sharpening is not something I am full of knowledge on, but I will assist you and give you as much as I know. You mentioned bits and I do not recommend any type of hand held mechanical tool bit for sharpening a straight razor. This is too dangerous and can cause damage to you or the blade or your equipment. You husband will need two, possible three stones, plus a paddle and strop. The stones should be sharpening stones anyhwere from 8 to 12k grit, even as high as 15. A natural coticule will work as well for the last step. The paddle should be covered in canvas and the canvas should have CrOx (Chromium Oxide) impregnated into the canvas.
If this seems like too much of an investment, I highly recommend seeking out a barber or someone known for the razor honing skills to do the work for you. A good razor shouldn’t need but honing perhaps once a quarter. I hope this helps on recommendations for what your husband needs! Feel free to get back in touch with us if you need any more help!
Smooth Shaving!
Aaron”
Do you have any burning questions you would like ask our wet shaving expert Aaron Wolfenbarger? CLICK HERE TO ASK AARON YOUR QUESTION
Guest post by Straight Razor Place founder Lynn Abrams
We recently sent a tub of The Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream to William Ewin, or Jockeys41 as he is also known, so he could test it with a cutthroat or straight razor.
Jockeys41, who praised the cream very highly, posted a link to his YouTube review on the very impressive wet shaving forum, The Straight Razor Place (www.straightrazorplace.com).
This review was seen by the forum’s founder, Lynn Abrams, who then Tweeted us, asking for a sample of the cream so he could see first hand what all the fuss was about.
Here at the Shaving Shack, we are very keen to promote every method of traditional wet shaving and thought it would be an excellent idea to ask Lynn to submit a guest post on the growing popularity of The Straight Razor Place forum, and his love for the art of straight shaving.
Here goes:
“
Hello, my name is Lynn Abrams and I am the founder of The Straight Razor Place (SRP), the first and original straight razor forum on the internet. I would like to thank Mark for the opportunity to participate in his blog and share what has been an amazing 10 years in the development of wet shaving and straight razor shaving.
I started shaving with a straight razor in 1973 after my grandfather took me to a barber for a straight razor shave. The shave was so smooth and close that I didn’t have to shave for two days. I was so hooked that I purchased a straight razor within a week. It was a Cutlery World razor, probably made by Dovo and I still have it today. During this time, the only known places to purchase straight razors, brushes, strops or soaps was from either Cutlery stores or Knife shops. So for the next 25 years or so I shaved with that straight razor on and off, depending on whether I could get it sharpened properly. I was using a cheap shaving soap in a coffee mug and an old boar’s hair brush. I used to send the razor off to various cutlery shops for honing and about 50 percent of the time, the razor came back with an edge fit for shaving. During this time, I was also in business and like most people; I was absorbed in the day to day pace of a busy job and family. Shaving was a necessary evil and definitely looked at as a chore. I was out of the house after waking up in 30 minutes and on the road to a busy day of work.
It seems like yesterday, but in 1999, I began looking on the internet for information on how to hone/sharpen and maintain my straight razor. At this time, I was on a mission to back off of the hectic daily pace of life and enjoy my straight razor complete with a hot towel treatment whenever I could. All that I can tell you is that it was very frustrating to search the web every day only to find an occasional question and answer on a knife forum or to hit the mother lode at the time and find Arthur Boon’s article which contained some great information about straight razors, their use and care. There just was no place where you could discuss straight razors or wetshaving or ask questions to. Information was extremely limited.
So I had this idea. Yahoo had a function called groups and I figured that if I started a straight razor group, there would be a place to preserve knowledge about the art of straight razor shaving. This turned out to be one of the more fun ventures that I have undertaken in my life. SRP Yahoo was started in November of 2000. When the group started, I asked my 3 sons to join so that we could have a few members and began soliciting people buying and selling razor on ebay to join as well. It started out very slow, but by the end of the 1st year, we began putting together some great information and discussion regarding the use of straight razors, identification of them, their care and of course, how to sharpen one. I realized that my quest was taking shape, but I really had a long way to go. I began purchasing every ebay razor I could get my hands on and with the help of a gentleman named Don Walters; I started to learn how to hone my own straight razors. I can’t begin to tell you the level of excitement I had when I was able to shave with the first straight razor I sharpened. It was like catching a fish on the very first fly I ever tied. Well that was many thousands of razors ago and to this day, I have not lost the enjoyment that comes from making straight razors shave ready for myself and other people. It is the basis from which we decided that every new razor sold would be honed at no expense to the buyer at my shop so that people would have every opportunity at success when using a straight razor.
If you ever get the chance, check out the old yahoo group Straight Razor Place and start reading from the beginning. You will quickly recognize just how far we have come. You can see where we had the assistance of John West, a thirty year collector of straight razors who enlightened us about which razors barbers liked best, razor values and razor history. We had people like Ray DuPont, deceased, who was the founder of Classic Shaving show up as an early ebay vendor when he first started the business. Ray was one of the first people to offer a full variety of products channeled directly to the wet shaving population. It has been amazing to see the variety of people from all walks of life that have come into this environment and many are still around today. The membership has now grown to almost 30,000 members on the .com site and the Yahoo site remains in operation. The mission remains to spread the world and share the art of wetshaving and straight razor shaving. It is all about changing the chore of shaving daily into a pleasure that people can look forward to.
One of the things that I am most proud of is that Straight Razor Place has not only grown from its humble origin into the most credible source of straight razor information, but it is a place that has a pay it forward mentality. The membership is without question, one of the most helpful and generous groups of people on the planet. SRP does not allow any vendor or individual to be trashed. They also do not allow any selling or special interests in the forum other than the vendor section. There is a great Wiki there for people to research and help build information. It is just an amazing collection of people and after 10 years, it remains a place that I like to visit every day.
So where are we today? There are hundreds of specialty vendors offering great products to the wet shaving population. We know about great brushes and strops and sharpening stones that were not available years ago. We have more available information and assistance to new people than ever in history. The amount of soaps and aftershaves and colognes available today is staggering. We have people all over the world making custom straight razors and restoring vintage razors. We have razor manufacturers coming back into the business. Where there were a few hundred listings on ebay 10 years ago, there are now thousands. We have people recognizing the positive effect of not having to throw out plastic disposables every week and helping the environment. We have many bloggers out there helping to spread the word and aiding in the introduction and evaluation of new products. We see straight razor use showing up in news stories all over the country. If you look on YouTube, you will find hundreds of videos from people sharing their experiences and providing help in using all wet shaving tools. In addition, there are now wetshaving and straight razor forums that have started in many countries and quite a few here in the US. It has been most gratifying to see this kind of growth and especially in the last several years. A lot of the people who started forums had their beginnings at SRP. We may never get to mainstream, but there are millions of people enjoying the benefits of all kinds of wetshaving today and happily spreading the word.
This is all a dream come true for me and considering where we have come from, I can say mission accomplished. To me, it will never be about the vendors or individual recognition. It will always be about sharing the information and helping people to enjoy shaving and grooming along with providing them answers to all their questions. Let’s continue to make this a world where people look forward to the next shave.
Thank you to all the wonderful people I have met over the last 10 years and let’s look forward to the legacy we have created. We all continue to learn something about this sport every day and it is a journey well worth experiencing.
Sincerely,
Lynn
“
This article first appeared on Mantic 59′s Shaving Journal. He kindly gave us permission to post it here.
Jockeys41, from StraightRazorPlace.com, video reviews Bluebeards Revenge
I have just been reading The Bluebeards Revenge blog and it seems they have been targeting the Youtube shaving community.
HERE IS THEIR LATEST BLOG POST:
“A few weeks ago Youtube sensation Geo Fat Boy proved to the world that The Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream could be used with both a double edge razor and a straight razor.
Now another Youtube shaving celebrity has tested our beard reducing cream with a cutthroat razor and he was not left disappointed.
William Ewin, or Jockeys41 as he likes to be called, put The Bluebeards Revenge through its paces with a very manly looking ‘Perfect Wizard’ 4/8 square point straight razor with barbers notch and stub tail (see video below).
The straight shaving guru had already put together a comprehensive written review of our shaving cream, which you can read by clicking here.
William, 29, from Texas, regularly contributes to the leading Internet shaving forum, StraightRazorPlace.com.
He has now been shaving with an open razor for nearly five years, making him an official bad ass in our book.
Keep up the good work William.
GEO FAT BOY’S BLUEBEARDS REVENGE REVIEW
“
Ask Aaron Q&A: Stropping a straight or open razor
“Hello Arron, I have just purchased a straight razor and I have been very CAREFUL in using it. When I strop the blade, how long will it be before it gets sharp? I have stropped 40 times. I kept the blade flat and delicate when using it but I do not seem to get the shave I want. I did get A TINY bit of razor burn but no nicks,” asks Maxx Buczynski, from the UK.
AARON SAYS
“Mr. Buczynski,
Straight Razor shaving is the ultimate in wet shaving and highly regarded. It also takes the most time to master out of all the options out there. Since you just started I say give it some time. Most of the experts agree that it takes weeks, as in eight to ten weeks, for someone to learn to start shaving well with a straight razor. I think that with practice you will begin to see your technique improve and the shaves that you want start appearing.
If at that time things still are not going to plan, here are a couple of things that I would evaluate. It might be that in your learning process the edge has been accidentally dulled despite your best efforts. That’s okay, it happens to every learning straight shaver. Send it to be honed by a reputable person, this will do wonders for your blade. Also make sure you have a good quality strop, this can make also a big difference in the edge you are putting on your blade.
Kudos to you for taking the plunge into straight razor shaving! I highly recommend you join a wet shaving forum and begin to ask questions and participate there. You will learn great amounts of information from the gentlemen there and by experimenting with your own shaves. I wish you all the best!
Smooth Shaving!
Aaron”
Do you have any burning questions you would like ask our wet shaving expert Aaron Wolfenbarger? CLICK HERE TO ASK AARON YOUR QUESTION
Bluebeards Revenge video review with straight & safety razor
A leading US wet shaving expert has produced a video review of The Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream, post shave balm and ‘Scimitar’ safety razor.
GeoFatBoy, from Shavenation.com, tested our beard-reducing shaving cream with both the ‘Scimitar’ and the very manly looking Thiers Issard “Spartacus” straight razor.
And according to Geo, the cream provided a “great shave” for both shaving techniques, adding that it smelt good and produces a thick lather. He also praised our post shave balm for its smell and hydrating qualities.
You can watch his full review in the excellent video below.
If you’re interested in the art of wet shaving, Geo’s Youtube channel has a number of great shaving tutorials.
Los Angeles’ leading barbershop giving a traditional cut-throat shave using Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream
In this traditional shaving documentary, Vinnie Morey and Trent Magnano talk about how their unique Hollywood barbershop (The Proper Barbershop), a blend of modern art, street culture blended with the traditional and old-fashioned, was born.
They discuss their open razor technique using Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream and how a traditional shave is “one of the last things a man can do to really enjoy a service that is not a manicure and pedicure you can do with your wife”.
The Proper Barbershop was created by Vinnie and Trent as a way of bringing back the classic old-fashioned barbershop to the modern world.
Vinnie and Trent are both very decorated barbers with a driving passion and true respect for the art and tradition of their craft.
“We both realised that there was a huge gap in the Los Angeles men’s grooming community,” said Vinnie. “In our view, too many men have never been to or even seen a real traditional barbershop!
The Proper Barbershop is located on 7950 3rd St. Los Angeles
“With that in mind, we decided to build a barbershop that has never been seen before. It was the most beautiful marriage of modern art, street culture blended with the traditional, old-fashioned barbershop. In that moment, The Proper was born!”
The Proper Barbershop is located on 7950 3rd St. Los Angeles.
“Come in today for a hot towel shave and a real barber’s haircut, and make sure to enjoy our fun-loving, easy-going atmosphere while you’re here,” added Vinnie.
“Relax with an X-Box, watch a funny movie, and have a cold beer in our back lounge. We set out to create the last true safe house for a man to come and enjoy being a man.”
Why use a shavette instead of an open razor?
A shavetteis a razor that is similar to a straight or cutthroat razor, with the main difference relating to the fact that its blades can be changed. These razors are available from well-known brands such as Parker and Dovo and so you can be assured of a quality product. If you are wondering whether you should consider one above a typical open razor, then check out the points below.
The shavette is a distinctive and stylish razor that is proving to be very popular at this moment in time. The key reason for this is that as the blade does not need to be frequently stropped or sharpened, it can save time for those who are in a hurry, but still want to experience the luxury of a wet shave. Therefore, the preparation time for the shave is greatly reduced when using a shavette.
As with a safety razor, the shavette can be fitted with disposable blades, which slide into place and can be changed from time to time. This gives the user a greater flexibility to replace the blades when required, yet still be able to enjoy the closeness of a shave you can only get by using a straight razor.
A shavette is quite affordable and standard double edged razor blades are not all that expensive. These products are great when travelling as you won’t need to take the other shaving equipment such as a strop or hone with you.
So, you may be wondering after hearing about these advantages why anyone would use anything else. Well, the blades can still be very sharp and so they are usually recommended for more experienced (and patient) wet shavers. If you make any errors with this lighter razor you can easily cut yourself, so with a steep learning curve extra care is needed when using a shavette.
In the end it is up to you to decide if a shavette is for you or not. Many people still prefer the extra comfort a straight razor gives you, and don’t mind taking the time to prepare a razor for shaving. For these shavers, there is no substitute for the real thing. Other people prefer to keep both to hand, so there is always a spare razor ready to use. Whatever your view on this, there is no denying that shavettes are an excellent quick alternative to an open razor.
Follow Nick Gibbens on Twitter @nickgibbens
More articles by Nick Gibbens
Straight razor reviews – Cyril Salter Solingen 5/8 Open Razor Round Point
One of our Cyril Salter straight razors has been given a rave review by a leading American wet shaving guru.
Derek Markham, from popular shaving website ShavingStuff.com, was full of praise for the Cyril Salter Solingen 5/8 Open Razor Round Point.
He started off his review by explaining that because it was his first straight razor experience, he wasn’t sure what to expect from it.
“But after using it as my secondary shaving tool for a while, I’ve really grown to love it,” he explained.
“Shaving with a straight razor is one of those experiences that really separates the men from the boys, and a skill which isn’t very common anymore - so taking the time to learn how to use one was worth it.”
Derek admitted that he was a bit wary of placing a naked razor’s edge directly against his face but went on to say “after playing around with my grip on the razor, I found that I was able to get comfortable holding it and drawing it across my face”.
Derek concluded his review by saying that he was very impressed with the Cyril Salter straight razor, adding “it’s a great entry-level razor for those who wish to begin learning the art of old-school shaving”.
You can read the complete review by clicking here.
The Cyril Salter Solingen 5/8 Open Razor Round Point costs £36.99 from the Shaving Shack website.
-
Stay connected:
-
Keep up to date
-
-
