is it a straight razor or not
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is it a straight razor or not
I have been using the kind of straight razor that you split a DE blade down the middle and insert one half into the slot and shave. Is this considered a straight razor or what?
Have a wonderful shaving day
- Blue As A Jewel
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- Assistant Dean SMFU
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"Straight razor" is an odd kind of term, but we're stuck with it.
Broadly, it means a razor that has just an exposed blade, with no safety guards to protect you while shaving.
More narrowly, it also usually means a razor where the blade and the handle (in that case called a "tang") are forged as one piece of steel, and the "scales" (those pivoting cover pieces made of plastic or other material) are riveted on afterwards.
Broadly, it means a razor that has just an exposed blade, with no safety guards to protect you while shaving.
More narrowly, it also usually means a razor where the blade and the handle (in that case called a "tang") are forged as one piece of steel, and the "scales" (those pivoting cover pieces made of plastic or other material) are riveted on afterwards.
Where I went to undergraduate we learned questions like this are answered by definitions. The question is does the razor you are talking of fit the definition of a straight and Miriam and Webster are the generally excepted arbiter of definitions, in other words what ever the latest edition of the dictionary says the definition is that's what the definition is. According to Miriam and Webster a straight razor is:
a razor with a rigid steel cutting blade hinged to a case that forms a handle when the razor is open for use
If it fits then its a straight.
a razor with a rigid steel cutting blade hinged to a case that forms a handle when the razor is open for use
If it fits then its a straight.
JBC
Nuts about wet shaving
Nuts about wet shaving
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- Assistant Dean SMFU
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I have nothing to offer about straight razors, but I don't accept jbc's concept of a dictionary.
In my mind (and that of many linguists) a dictionary or a grammar is an attempted description of a given language and its usage (and they are often out of date by the time they are published). I don't accept them as prescriptive references, however, though under certain circumstances I will bow to formal grammar and set aside what I consider more historically accurate.
I think the original poster's question was to get the perspective of straight razor experts, who ideally would be those to determine the definition in a dictionary.
- Murray
In my mind (and that of many linguists) a dictionary or a grammar is an attempted description of a given language and its usage (and they are often out of date by the time they are published). I don't accept them as prescriptive references, however, though under certain circumstances I will bow to formal grammar and set aside what I consider more historically accurate.
I think the original poster's question was to get the perspective of straight razor experts, who ideally would be those to determine the definition in a dictionary.
- Murray
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I agree.Hawkeye5 wrote:Its a shavette, not a straight.
If you describe a straight by function, and shave quality, than a Shavette is not a straight, because the it shaves entirely differently than a straight, doesn't require stropping, or honing, and also looks quite a bit different than an actual straight.
I would say it is a razor in a class unto itself. A class that is not shared by the Feather Artist Club/ Kai Captain Excelia, as those razors are vastly superior to a Shavette.
~JOHN~
Wet Shaver's Mantra:
Go Slow. Proper Angle. No Pressure.
Wet Shaver's Mantra:
Go Slow. Proper Angle. No Pressure.