Anyone use a straight (cut-throat) razor?

[Smoothie]

I've been thinking of getting one for shaving, but am wondering how a vegan would go about sharpening a dull blade other than with a (leather) strop.


Any advice would be appreciated.

[berrykat]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Shaving#Straight_razor_.28cut_throat_razor.29 says here cardboard will work never tried it myself cut throat razors give me the hebejebes. :)

[Smoothie]

Nice one!

[ikisstrees]

can you shave your legs with one of these? Or are they more meant for facial hair shaving? I've seen them in movies and such, but I didn't know people actually used them!

[Smoothie]

Don't see why not. Assuming laydeez have been in the practice of shaving their legs for a long time, surely they used to do it with one of these, no?

[soilman]

Smoothie, I'm not sure how well they work but I have a book on sharpening things, and it says that any piece of leather will do, but certain "composition" products are just as good for fine-honing a blade, they gave product such as these as an example

http://www.woodisgoodco.com/strops.htm

They recommended using the aluminum oxide powder shown, too, with the compostion strop.

[soilman]

I don't own a strop and I am not able to sharpen razors razor-sharp but I do sharpen my kitchen knives to sharp as new (not quite as sharp as a razor). For that I use a fine synthetic "oil stone" (an "india" stone, that is, an aluminum oxide, which is the better of 2 types of composition "stones"), and also a real stone afterwards, an "arkansas" stone. You can also use wet-or-dry sandpaper glued to a piece of hardwood. Use it with oil, just like you would a stone. a light oil like "3-in-one" is needed. Not motor oil. Start with whatever grit you need, and end up with 600 grit. If you keep your tool protected from nicks, you will never need to grind it on a grindstone, an oilstone, a whetstone, would be quite sufficient. You could use a water-based "japanese" system instead of an oil system, a "waterstone" system. These are sufficient for basic sharpening, only final touch up do you need a strop. Most tools do not need stropping: chisels, food knives, planes -- they dont' need stropping. Razors do.

Without a strop, you can get a kitchen knife sharp enough so that it will easily glide thru a piece of printer-paper (as opposed to tissue paper). But that is not sharp enough for shaving. After you get the blade that sharp with an al-ox stone, you then smooth it further with an arkansas stone, then use a strop for final "razor" sharpness.

[soilman]

Shaving tip: I've found that Kiss My Face plain olive soap irritates my skin very very little. To help the razor glid along, I add a bit of mineral oil -- you could use olive oil -- to my (horsehair) brush. Yes, the horsehair shaving brush is one of the few animal-origin tools I use. It is not absolutely necessary. You cold apply soap suds to your skin with your hands. I have no reason to believe that fine diameter synthetic bristles (with split tips) won't work, but I haven't seen one for sale, in a shaving brush size and shape. I'm going to try a small paint-brush (cut-in brush) when I get a chance.

[soilman]

And for glob's sake please don't call a straight-razor a "cut-throat" razor. Cutting throats is an off-label use, not recommended by the manufacturer.

[froggythefrog]

Would a sharpening stone with oil work? (I don't know what sort of oil is typically used -- ie., vegan and toxicity concerns.)

ETA: Like Soilman mentioned.

[soilman]

An oilstone with 3-in1 type of oil (this is a petroleum product) would work to sharpen a dull razor or one with tiny nicks, to knife-sharpness, but to get it to "razor sharpness" you need to follow that up with stropping on a leather strop or composition strop.