Protect your beards, lads!

[ozmeath]

Nick, tell us how you go with the razor and strop. I've got a beautiful antique razor that i've tried to get sharp but it's always sharp enough to leave a few bloody lines on me but leave the hair! I've stropped thatthing til I'm stroppy (oz slang for somewhat short tempered).
Good advice bubba.
Funny how so many of us have beards. Well I always say if it thins out some of the female crowd, all the better, because you're left with a better class of woman!

[Nick]

Ozmeath, unfortunately it takes more than a strop. To actually sharpen you need a very very fine sharpening stone. The strop only hones the blade and cleans it.

The other thing is angle and pressure. You have to find the proper angle, and don't press! That's important, and something that's hard to get used to. I expect it's similar to the switch from steel dip pens to ballpoint. It's hard to use a dip pen now because we're used to pushing hard; the same applies to straight razors and modern razors. If it's sharp, and you've got the right angle, it should just float on top of your skin as you shave.

[Kilted KT]

Ozmeath, unfortunately it takes more than a strop. To actually sharpen you need a very very fine sharpening stone. The strop only hones the blade and cleans it.

The other thing is angle and pressure. You have to find the proper angle, and don't press! That's important, and something that's hard to get used to. I expect it's similar to the switch from steel dip pens to ballpoint. It's hard to use a dip pen now because we're used to pushing hard; the same applies to straight razors and modern razors. If it's sharp, and you've got the right angle, it should just float on top of your skin as you shave.

with my luck, I'd sharpen the blade so it would cut concrete like warm butter, and float it right through my jaw bone! I stick with the training wheels on my razors, when I use them...

[Angus]

...If it's sharp, and you've got the right angle, it should just float on top of your skin as you shave.

And NEVER pull the blade horizontally while its touching flesh. Very bad idea....

[Piper]

Ozmeath, unfortunately it takes more than a strop. To actually sharpen you need a very very fine sharpening stone. The strop only hones the blade and cleans it.

Back when I used to shave, the straight razor was my instrument of choice. I tried everything from my grandfather's old twist to open Gillette blue blade razor through injector and disposable styles. Managed to draw blood with all of them. I even managed to pinch myself badly enough with an electric shaver to draw a bit of blood. Other than a couple of minor nicks when I first learned, the cutthroat has never hurt me.
I kept it sharp using a fine Japanese waterstone, about 1200 grit I believe. It looks and feels like a piece of marble. I also occasionally used a black arkansas stone. That was a bit smaller, so it packed better with the reenacting gear. I understand the black arkansas used to be used to sharpen surgical scalpels. I'm not sure where you'd buy a black arkansas these days, but the Japanese waterstones should be available from anyplace that sells high end woodworking tools.
I still break out the old cutthroat twice a year. I lop a couple of inches off the beard in mid May, and again between Christmas and New Year (when I no longer need the "Santa" look". I use the straight razor to trim up the neck line a bit.

[Schultz]

Much to my wife's dismay, all this beard talk has made me feel the need to grow at least the goatee back, the only facial hair I know I can actually grow without looking like I have some sort of skin disease.

She thanks all of you for your support ;)

[Kilted KT]

Much to my wife's dismay, all this beard talk has made me feel the need to grow at least the goatee back, the only facial hair I know I can actually grow without looking like I have some sort of skin disease.

She thanks all of you for your support ;)

and we thank her for putting up with an Xmarker in the house!

[ozmeath]

Nick I may give it another shot if I can fine a super fine hone. It's just for trimming 'round the throat but I got a pointy adam's apple and I Like the shape it is