I shaved my face with my Manix this weekend

gunmike1

gunmike1

Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
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I found out I was out of Fusion blades, and my 2 day beard needed a trimming. My bottom of the line junker ($20) Norelco 3 headed razor with only 2 blades in it was all I had, so I went at it. I was left with very long patches of hair and pretty poor results (and lots of irritation spots), even after cleaning it a couple times. I had just put a 15 degree microbevel on my Manix up to the Spyderco Fine grit, and it was the only knife in my pocket so I put on some shaving cream and carefully went for it. For reference it was tree topping my arm hairs, though I ideally would have brought the polish up to ultrafine or the 6000 grit King Waterstone that Thom Brogan was nice enough to give me. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of careful trimming I had cut the hair down to looking pretty good with no cuts at all (it was much closer than I thought I could get, considering I was being very careful and it is a thick knife). I then followed up with the Norelco, which seems to do better when you only have short hair to contend with, and it evened everything out OK. Not Fusion close, for sure, but much better than I thought it would be. In retrospect I should have got one of the really thin Krein regrinds that I have laying around, but that would have required walking up and down stairs, too much for how late it was.

Mike
 
I have experimented with shaving with several of my knives, although non of them are capable of tree topping. They seem to do alright, I think I would pass for someone who had shaved. ;)
 
i had to shave for a whole week with my crkt m16, never cut myself but i had plenty of razor burn, would have helped if id had a fine grit wetstone with me.
 
Interesting! I get fed up with gillette's monopoly and the cost of razor blades.Don't know about my knives but does anybody have info on how to learn to shave with an open cut-throat razor? Where do you buy them and what to look for?
 
RobbW said:
Excellent! Nice report, but I have to ask: pics?? :D
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The irritation spots from my electric razor were already there, and my wife was out with her friend (and wouldn't have condoned using my Manix for this duty), so I didn't take pics. I think I passed pretty well after the Manix for a guy who had shaved in the morning and it was getting to being the afternoon, except for a couple crevases where I was being real careful. The touchup with the electric razor took down the now much shortened hair in those crevases to even things out, though it wasn't as close as a Fusion shave, at all. Of course, I have got some wicked cuts from the Fusion, which makes me want a straight razor, but since I have a curious and athletic 2 year old the wife (rightly so) won't let me have one.

Mike
 
willgoy said:
Interesting! I get fed up with gillette's monopoly and the cost of razor blades.Don't know about my knives but does anybody have info on how to learn to shave with an open cut-throat razor? Where do you buy them and what to look for?
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I hear ya, brother. I couldn't see paying the price of these multi-blade cartridges and since I like traditional stuff, I recently started shaving with a retro-style safety razor (Merkur HD).
HD.jpg

I get personna DE blades at Wal-Mart, 10 for $1.57 vs God knows HOW much for those 5 blade wonders. I can get a better shave than my previous razor (a Trac-II) with it.

For info on straights, try the Razors, Scissors & Personal Grooming forum right here at Bladeforums, or try these other shaving sites:

Badger & Blade
ShaveMyFace.com
StraightRazorPlace.com
 
Scroll down this page to the "Forum Jump" button and jump over to the razors sub-furum. There is usually plenty of talk there on straight razor shaving.
 
gunmike, you're an inspiration to us all. My hat's off to you.

I've been thinking of trying a straight razor myself. There's a big barrier to entry though, with the razor, hone, strop, brush, etc.

I've heard nicks are more frequent with a straight razor, but they heal much faster since they tend to be more vertical, whereas nicks from a modern safety razor tend to shave off layers of skin.
 
TorzJohnson said:
I recently started shaving with a retro-style safety razor (Merkur HD).
Click to expand...

Hey, that looks like what my Dad used to use. When I was 4 or 5 he used to lather me up, take the blade out of his safety razor, and let me practice "shaving". Good memories.
 
Yea, those Spydercos are up to the task...what ever it is. Glad you didn't loose too much blood.
 
Good job Gunmike1! You might want to try stropping on smooth leather before shaving, it really helps. Even better, stropping on Cr0 first, then smooth leather can really prepare the edge for shaving. Just the fact that you did this is impressive.

If you want to know if your knife is sharp, AFTER you get it treetop trimming sharp, try shaving your chin. You'll find out right away!

I shave with a straight razor also and TorzJohnson gave some good links. It's a lot more fun, and a lot more challenging. But it's another good excuse to sharpen yet another piece of steel.... ;)
 
The chin is an area I used extreme caution and had a couple high spots that later got evened out by the Norelco. Neck and under the chin were really pretty easy going for what I expected, but the chin and under my ears around my jawline I was very cautious. If I had planned on shaving with the blade I would have finished it much finer, but it did the rough job I needed for the Norelco to be able to level things off to a decent looking shave where I was cautious with the Manix.

Mike
 
TorzJohnson said:
I hear ya, brother. I couldn't see paying the price of these multi-blade cartridges and since I like traditional stuff, I recently started shaving with a retro-style safety razor (Merkur HD).
HD.jpg

I get personna DE blades at Wal-Mart, 10 for $1.57 vs God knows HOW much for those 5 blade wonders. I can get a better shave than my previous razor (a Trac-II) with it.

For info on straights, try the Razors, Scissors & Personal Grooming forum right here at Bladeforums, or try these other shaving sites:

Badger & Blade
ShaveMyFace.com
StraightRazorPlace.com
Click to expand...

Interesting info thanks. When I was a kid I bought an old silver plated razor in a box,you stropped it inside the box on a kind of rail,then unscrewed the handle and attached the blade. Looked excellent!Got stolen at university:mad:

The picture of that traditional safety razor looked excellent,where did you say you got it?
 
Pack of disposeables with the navy blue handle will do a better job than the Norelco and be safer for your face than a Manix. But as good as they shave, they don't make for such a cool story.
 
willgoy said:
The picture of that traditional safety razor looked excellent,where did you say you got it?
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They are available from a lot of retailers, I got mine at classicshaving.com. They were in demand after a Reader's Digest article came out and a lot of places ran out of them, but classicshaving.com had them in stock and shipped very quickly.
 
I used a Victorinox Bantam recently, which I had thinned out the edge and given a good polish on 1200 grit. It will catch my leg hairs above the skin easily, but not my arm hairs. I haven't found any knife sharp enough to do that with my arm hairs, maybe because of how thin they are compared to my leg hairs.

Anyways the shaving went well. I used only water, since I don't own shaving cream. No cuts, extremely little irritation and a pretty close shave. Not as close or even as a disposible razor, but much more fun. It gives you a much better appreciation of your sharpening skills (Or lack of) than push-cutting newspaper will.
 
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