How to Use a Straight Razor

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Left: Razors come in many styles and materials. Top: Sheffield steel blades are highly desirable and always marked "Sheffield, Eng." Bottom: This is what is meant by "hollow ground" : Note the Y shape of the blade. Razors not ground this way are tough to sharpen.

It seems probable to me that many men spend a certain share of their lives engaged in that most ridiculous of Western Man's cultural rituals, shaving.

OK, some of us have to do it for one reason or another, to hold that job until the Time comes or to keep from having a scraggly, armpit-like growth on the face because we can't grow a good beard, or whatever.

But let's give the problem some thought. Short of electrolysis (preferably at an early age), there are only two basic methods of depilation: the electric razor and the blade. Each has its advantages, fewer cuts with the electric, a closer shave (in spite of what the electric razor manufacturers say) with the blade.

But there are disadvantages to each, too. Electric razors needlessly support the power companies, are initially rather expensive and require maintenance (which often involves sending the blamed things to the factory) from time to time. And suppose you want to go out into the woods for a while without coming back looking like one of the animals, what then? That electric razor is about as useful in the forest as a refrigerator. Very few trees come equipped with outlets.

Now consider the safety razor. Any male who's ever used one will attest to the fact that there's nothing safe about it. The first shave on a new blade leaves your face looking as if it's been gone over by someone in hobnail boots, and when the blade gets dull, the last shave is just about as bad as the first with the sole difference being that it hurts more. And what do you do then? You cuss, replace the blade and consign the old one to that little slot in back of the medicine chest.

How many tons of steel are consumed each year in this way, never to be seen again until and unless the house is torn down? I'd love to know how much steel and other less common metals we consume annually in the form of blades. The manufacturers are using platinum now and claiming 10 or 15 shaves per blade, the same number claimed for the stainless steel cutting edges when they were introduced seven or eight years back. This is an improvement?

Well, many moons ago, while picking a safety razor from the gouge in my cheek (it was quite literally hung there) I decided that there must surely be a better way. I had already been the electric route and found that it left much to be desired; for instance, a decent shave.

The next afternoon, while trucking around town, I dropped into a junk shop and there, in a display case, was something I hadn't seen outside a barber shop in years, a straight razor. The razor was in good shape, so I bought it and took it home. After a week or so of experiments (during which I cut myself, I think, four times) I got the hang of the thing with a little help from a friend who had used a straight razor before.

Since then, the results have gotten better all the time. I'm not babyfaced, but I can sure look like it with a little application, and the shave lasts the whole day instead of just a few hours.