Thread: Use your Wrist

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a place for arm movement too. The barber I spoke to let me sit and watch him shave a customer (with a disposable straight - not allowed to use the real thing here). There was arm movement in there, but it was minimal compared to his wrist movement. He was quick with it too - two passes in about 5 minutes, with no nicks and no burn that I could see. Customer seemed happy in any event.

Kind of related - I gave him a Wapi as a gift. He was really pleased, but said that in Italy it's bad luck to receive a gift that is sharp (maybe that's a Sicilian thing.... ) so he's going to give me a couple of free shaves as payment. I'm going to be eyeballing his technique first-hand, plus I'll be able to feel what he's doing too, pressure wise. I'll keep you informed.

James.

Not sharp?, well that explains a lot of the razors I've bought then . . .

That sounds like a great opportunity.

Sounds great James. Look forward to the update.

James,

I think it would be really neat if you picked his brain on stropping too. I'd love to hear everything he has to say on the topic. I've been collecting comments on stropping from real barbers for about 3 years now and I've received some very enlightening comments.

Feel free to PM me as you may discover some wild perspectives.

No worries guys - as I find out you'll find out.

Alan, I will ask him about stropping. We did talk briefly about it and he showed me (on the Wapi I gave him) how he strops on the palm of his hand mid-shave - he flipped on the edge and looked very heavy handed, but when I tested the sharpness of the Wapi again he hadn't damaged the edge at all! It will be interesting to hear what he has to say, but I'm fairly reticent (after the hand stropping demonstration) to take one of my strops in there for him to use....

James.

That is on par with comments from other barbers. But when you shave with the razor they shave great.