I don't know if this has ever been discussed but anybody had experience with a scalpel and if so how was the "sharpness" compared to a well honed straight?
A surgical scalpel is many times sharper than a straight razor and almost as sharp as many of the sharpest DE blades.
I dont think I'd wish to shave with a scalpel-sharp instrument. Too easy to start shaving off skin…..
Hmmm. I worked surgery for years. I've never seen a scalpel anywhere near as sharp as a Feather or Polsilver Super Iridium. I doubt that there is a scalpel anywhere that is as sharp as a professionally honed and freshly stropped straight razor.
There was a study done See Voerhaven paper The sharpest DE's in the study where found to be about .31 Microns the sharpest SR's where at .32 Microns IIRC off the top of my head There is really much more to this and I can go on and on about what is sharp and what is smooth (Finish stones, Stropping, Edge coatings etc etc) Scalpels are a draw cutting instrument where as DE and SR's are designed as push cutters these are not actually the same type of edges... As to actual keenness I doubt they are very far apart in Micron size if at all now if you want to get into really keen then look at the Micron size of an Obsidian edge...
Taken from a debate of steel vs obsidian: "Freshly broken pieces of obsidian make perfect, smooth edges that are only a molecule wide at their apex. Steel, on the other hand, is jagged on the edge, forming tiny tooth-like serrations on the cutting edge. Those points will bend to either side of the blade through use, dulling the edge. When you sharpen a knife, you are aligning the serrations to the plane of the edge. Steel can theoretically be honed until its edge is just a single molecule wide like obsidian, but here the limitations of the metal come in to play. Obsidian is much, much harder than steel. At molecular width, it's edge is hard enough to maintain that razor edge. At that thickness, the steel blade's serration's (the ones I mentioned earlier) are too weak, and will bend once you try to use that edge. Once you try cutting something, the steel edge will bend, and become less sharp." Shave-ready?
It is amazing how mother nature provides us with the tools we needed to survive way before the invention of man made materials and manufacturing.
It seems like I remember reading something somewhere where some doctor-type was shaving with a scalpel when hard pressed for a razor. From what Glen said, it doesn't sound like it would give a very good shave.
Given that it requires a draw cut, as Glen mentions, perhaps the Gillette Slide and/or J-Hooking might (emphasis MIGHT) work.