Hello, What does the scything and guillotine motions do that normal passes don't? What are the advantages to this type of cut? Do you implement them in your personal straight razor routine?
Also know as an oblique stroke or the Gillette Slide it allows the blade to have a slicing motion that cuts through the whiskers with greater ease the just straight pressure. Think of cutting a carrot with a kitchen knife, one way by putting the edge of the knife to the carrot and pushing straight down, as opposed to pushing the knife blade forward with a cutting motion. You can easily achieve this by angling the head of the razor slightly off parallel while keeping the stroke in line like normal. Also FYI this is what a slant razor acheives by torquing the blade.
The advantage is that a slicing cut (the scything and guillotine motions) makes the shave more comfortable than simply pushing the blade through like a bulldozer. For me the scything and guillotine motions make up my personal straight razor routine.
I use it everyday with straight razors. Start with shallow angles until you become comfortable, you must remember to move the razor as you normally would and not in a slicing way.
