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Comment by CoastalCoder | Hacker News Reader

Aside from differences in cost, do you find anything about a straight razor compellingly better than e.g. a Gillette Mach 3?

I go through Mach 3 cartridges pretty slowly, so price isn't a big concern. And I don't notice anything deficient about the quality of my shaves. But one thing I really like about safety razors is that there's zero risk of serious injury.

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Safety razors are much better at making a neckline, if you only shave clean partially and trim the remaining beard. Personally I also get less skin irritation from the safety razor compared to the Mach3 I used before. Given I use it correctly. If you move "against" the hair instead of "with" the hair it caused a lot of irritation for me. But that was essentially user error.

In total I would never go back to a Mach3. The safety razor is just the all around superior product at a fraction of the price once you use it correctly.

The “once you use it correctly” is worth highlighting though.

I tried the double edge safety razor. Got the brush, shaving cream, big pack of Astra blades. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos on technique.

Spent way more time shaving. Nicked myself an ungodly number of times. Somehow got a worse shave out of it. Ended up going back to the cartridge razor.

I really want to be a double edge razor guy, but I was not able to make it up the learning curve.

"I tried the double edge safety razor. Got the brush, shaving cream, big pack of Astra blades. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos on technique. Spent way more time shaving. Nicked myself an ungodly number of times."

Maybe it's the blades?

I started with Derby Extra blades[1], and without using any special technique I've nicked myself only maybe once a year with them.

The weight of the razor might also figure in to it -- I got a Parker 66R razor[2], which has a nice heft to it, which means I don't have to press in to my face with the razor -- the weight of the razor itself is enough.

If you had a plastic and/or light-weight razor maybe you had to press in to your face, which could account for the nicks.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032Q41LS/

[2] - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0141BGDLI/

I got a vintage Gillette handle off eBay - it definitely has heft.

Could be worth trying a different set of blades. The Astra Platinum were the Reddit hive mind recommend at the time, but this was ~8 years ago.

I’m also wondering if it might be a hair thing. My facial hair is thick/coarse, particularly on the upper lip, which is where I consistently nicked myself.

Short of a several pound handle I can’t imagine cutting it with the weight of the razor alone.

You probably don't need to be told this, as it's pretty obvious, but just in case: you should curl your upper lip in to your mouth when you shave to make the skin taught and decrease the odds of nicks.

Also, before starting to shave you should wet your facial hair with hot/warm water for a few minutes to soften it up. I usually wet my face as soon as I get in to my shower and shave inside the shower a few minutes later.

It took mea little while too, but I've been using safety razors for almost ten years. Yeah, it took just doing all the right things by intuition. Dialing in the angle of the razor as i held it, getting good blades, getting the face clean and hot. Also, don't shave every day. I get a much better and more comfortable shave if i have two or three days of stubble.

That's my experience as well. And if I don't go against the grain, I may not nick myself, but it doesn't result in a close shave at all. It feels like one day after I shave with a Mach3 which I can use against the grain.

I really want it to work, but it's literally a blood bath.

> I also get less skin irritation from the safety razor compared to the Mach3

Isnt't Mach3 a safety razor?

To help differential the styles, (double-edge) safety razors and cartridge (safety) razors are named slightly differently to help reduce confusion in general conversation:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor

Of course if you want to go old school:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_razor

Slightly more convenient, but uses a similar technique:

* https://bespokeunit.com/shaving/shavette-vs-straight-razor/

Assuming that's something by Gillette/Wilkinson Sword etc., no, while safer, it's ironically not 'a safety razor'.

Safety razors (single/double edge) are safe by comparison to 'cut throat' straight edges, not to cartridge razors.

(Because they came first. It's like 'New' College Oxford being something like the second oldest one.)

the skinguard they have is great now. its basically a modernized mach3. super smooth and you can get away using it when its old and dull without being cut as much as the old mach3s, and it has a single blade on the back for edging.

There's a ritual to straight razor and traditional single-blade safety razor (what I use now) that is compelling in modern times when everything tells you to shave off minutes from every single thing in your life so you can free up your time. Seemingly this means just more time for internet browsing and things that have no impact on your life but I digress. The daily or semi-weekly ritual that takes time, attention and care is relaxing. I stopped using a straight razor since I couldn't get the edge as sharp as I'd like to but I may pick it up again once kids are older. I moved onto purchasing a $20 classic single-blade safety razor about 4 years back and now buy the razors in bulk. Can be very cheap depending on where you buy them. For the ones I buy it's probably $10 a year if that since I only shave every 3 days or so and a carton of 100 blades lasts a year. Does require 2 passes though but doing it right with shaving cream and brush is something I've come to enjoy.

> I stopped using a straight razor since I couldn't get the edge as sharp as I'd like to

Don’t get mad at me, but what you need is a 5000, 8000 and maybe 12000 grit Naniwa (or comparable) superstone. Also, a good strop. Leather would be sufficient.

Send your razor off for establishing a good edge to Portland Razor Co. Once you get it back, you should be able to maintain that edge with minimal fuss.

Carbon steels can get sharper but you need to be really on top of it on maintenance. Stainless steel is more durable and tolerates some abuse but does not retain edge as well.

Lastly, don’t hurry while shaving, and don’t drop the damn razor please.

Source: Guilty as charged.

For honing I swear by the Coticule stone[1], you only need the one stone as you can vary the grit. Tip: the non-rectangular stones are just as good and a fraction of the price.

Also guilty: I did start growing a beard after dropping my favorite razor :/

[1] https://www.ardennes-coticule.be

I couldn't manage it. I'd send mine off to get that edge, it would come back, I'd put it on the Nanis, ruin it, boom one shave. And those Naniwas were expensive. Went back to the safeties. I might try out shavettes one day.

How often do you use which stone?

Like 1200 before every shave? 800 once a week? Etc...? Do you ever need to go back to a coarser one?

Do you ever re-flatten your stones, or buy new ones? How often?

For a daily use straight razor, about once a season or twice a year.

Remember that you keep a razor sharp by using the pasted strop and having a good maintenance routine. After a while the cutting edge becomes more convex, which is where the stone is needed to straighten out.

A coticule is flattened on every use, because you rub a smaller stone on it to create the milky suspension that will do the actual abrading. I've had the same stone for 20 years.

That has not been my experience with stripes. Things got way better once I did a quick pass On an "Arkansas" stone before each use, but I still need to use something coarser once a month or so.

Nailed it. Almost as if I wrote this. One difference in application, though, is it seems you change your blades every time. I’ve not found a good / meaningful cadence.

If you clean shave your face, then a safety razor is probably better as it's easier to glide along a large distance across your face. For me, a straight edge razor allows me to shape my beard better. I do cut myself pretty much every time (since the hairs on my neck go in a million different directions), but that's easily addressed by showering right after a shave + after shave cream. The cost benefits over a safety can't be overstated: the razor is a cheap one-time cost ($13 off Amazon at the time, you don't really need a "high quality" razor IMO), blades are single use but super cheap ($15 ish for 100 blades), and since I shave at most weekly I only have to buy blades once every few _years_. As always YMMV depending on your facial hair style.

For me I found that I get much less razor burn with a safety razor. Whenever I shaved with a Mach 3 or another 3 blade cartridge razor, I would always get razor burn on my neck from the two additional blades. Never had that issue with a safety razor.

Aha you can totally cut yourself with a safety razor (unless you mean the Mach 3 and not what this article is calling a double edged razor which has historically been called a "Safety razor" )

You can cut yourself with a multi-blade razor too. The point is, little of the blade is actually exposed, so it won't be a serious injury.

A straight edged razor, by contrast, is just a knife, that you actually can kill yourself with by slicing deep enough into your neck to take out a major artery. You can't do that with a safety/multi-edge razor.

With a "safety razor" you can really cut yourself. Surely it's my fault, but I don't want another visit to the E.R. I went back to Mach3, $30 per year is worth it to me compared to risking expensive emergency room visits.

I think you're confusing terms. A safety razor exposed no more of the blade than a cartridge razor. I think you're probably referring to a straight razor.

Ah, you're right, thanks for the correction!

The straight razor incidents were pretty traumatizing, so much blood..

Stay safe <3

Edit: I double checked, it actually was with a safety razor. They don't have any buffer to avoid slicing you up compared to a mach3 or modern disposable razor. Please do be careful folks, they are super sharp and a single swipe can cut you up real good.

Less plastic waste. All the waste is just some steel. The bar soap lasts me forever. I get closer shaves too.

Which is surely recyclable 'waste' at that.

(Edit: to be clear I mean the spent metal blades? Not the plastic ones...)

If you're using carbon steel (not stainless), they will turn back into dirt within a couple years/decades of weathering (aka turning into a heap of rust).

If feasible, re-smelting them would be superior, as it'd skip the ore-to-iron high temperature chemistry process.

> Aside from differences in cost, do you find anything about a straight razor compellingly better than e.g. a Gillette Mach 3?

Quality of shave. If you maintain your straight razor, and mind it, it does require some maintenance, the quality of shave is of no comparison. My wife can instantly make out the difference when I shave in a hurry with Mach 3.

> If you maintain your straight razor, and mindit it does require some maintenance […]

Shavettes have lower maintenance and are very similar to straights:

* https://bespokeunit.com/shaving/shavette-vs-straight-razor/

I have tried the Shavette thing, but in my opinion they stand somewhere between the Gillette and a cutthroat straight.

More between DE and cut throat, leaning very heavily towards CT. Experimenting with one now: not a lot of margin of error with regards to technique as there is with DE.

It shaves deeper so you can have a better shave or shave less frequently. It's also a lot quicker than using a Mach3.

No plastic waste is the biggest one for me when it comes to safety/straight razors.

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