Your first
folding razor.

What it actually is

A folding razor that takes a replaceable blade instead of a permanently sharpened one. The blade clamps into a holder, the handle folds over it, and when the edge dulls you throw the blade away and fit another.

That matters more than it sounds. A traditional cut-throat has to be honed and stropped, and a badly maintained one shaves worse every week. A replaceable blade starts every shave at exactly the same sharpness — which is very sharp, sharper than most freshly honed straight razors, because it is a factory edge that has never touched a face.

Almost everyone’s first nick comes from using cartridge-razor pressure on an edge that needs none.

What you need

• Blades that fit. Half of a standard double-edge blade — see loading a half-DE blade.
• A proper lather. Soap or cream and a brush. Canned gel is thin and will not cushion this.
• Hot water and a towel.
• Twenty unhurried minutes. Not before work. Not on your first go.
• An alum block or styptic pencil. Optimism is not a substitute.

Preparation: the part people skip

Softened hair cuts at a fraction of the force of dry hair, and force is what cuts skin. This is the safety margin, not a ritual.

1. Shave after a shower, or hold a hot wet towel to your face for a couple of minutes.
2. Build a real lather — whipped, glossy, holding its shape, still slightly wet.
3. Paint it on with a brush, in circles, so it lifts the hair.
4. Fit the blade last, on a dry hand, never mid-shave with wet fingers.

Grip and angle

Thumb under the shank, first three fingers along the top, little finger on the tang at the back. Balanced and slightly forward, not clutched.

Roughly thirty degrees. Lay the blade flat on your cheek, then lift the spine until there is about two spine-widths between metal and skin. Steeper scrapes; flatter slides without cutting, which tempts you to press — and pressing draws blood.

No pressure whatsoever. The weight of the razor is the correct pressure. Your hand guides the angle and does nothing else.

Stretch the skin with your free hand, above the area, against the stroke. Taut skin cannot be caught by the edge.

Short strokes. Two or three centimetres. Reset. Rinse. Again.

The three passes

1. With the grain — the direction the hair grows. Re-lather.
2. Across the grain. Re-lather.
3. Against the grain, only if your skin tolerates it and only once the first two are comfortable. Plenty of people stop after two.

Cheeks first — flat and forgiving, and where you learn the angle. Then the jaw. Then the neck, slowly: below the jawline the grain often runs sideways or upwards, so check yours on a day’s growth before you start. Leave under the nose and around the Adam’s apple until you are confident.

The five mistakes behind every nick

1. Pressure. Number one by a distance.
2. Too steep an angle. The spine drifts up as concentration slips.
3. Slack skin. Not stretching, or stretching the wrong way.
4. Long strokes. The jawline is a corner, not a straight.
5. A tired blade. A dull edge needs pressure, and pressure cuts. Change it.

Afterwards

• Cold rinse, then pat dry.
• Alum block if you want to find every place you were slightly too keen.
• Balm, not an alcohol splash, for the first few weeks.
• Rinse and dry the razor open; take the blade out if it is going away for a while.
• Spent blades go in a blade bank. Never loose in a bin.

Questions

How many shaves per blade?

A handful, depending on your beard. Change it the moment it starts to tug — the tugging blade is the one that cuts you.

Is this harder than a safety razor?

Yes. A safety razor holds the angle for you and covers most of the edge. This does neither, which is the price of the closeness. A fortnight with a safety razor first is not a bad on-ramp.

Should the first shave be a full one?

No. One cheek, with the grain, then stop and see how it felt. A bad first experience puts most people off for good.

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This covers folding replaceable-blade razors generally, ours included. Wrong or missing? cutthroatcarteluk@gmail.com