Thread: Rating razor quality poll

Its like walking in the door for Thanksgiving, and smelling all the scents of a feast.
You havent seen a thing or tasted anything. You just know.
If Mom burnt the turkey you can smell it before you see it.
If you dont know food or cant smell, well.....
Hones give the smell of the taste of the shave.
Happy Turkey Day All

I judge how a razor is built by how it looks and feels on the hone first, any imperfections, unevenness, warped or not, all those thing play a part in my inexperienced honing journey
Imperfect blades are a pita on the hone getting the entire edge right
Most razors I have are great shavers when finished right, but not all are made equal with the same amount of attention to detail

I've honed a couple of Iwasaki Tamahagane Western Straights and they are not a fast and easy hone from glassed edge. So I will say it's all bout the hone feel because they are horrible shavers!

Honestly, for me it's the feel of the blade in my hand before it even touches stone that tells most. I then make it happen when steel meets stone. If it feels rubbish, I don't go through the trouble. On the hone, it's blade geometry. Spine to edge and how it meets the stone. That being said- eg. I've held some Sheffield steel that had geometry problems, and I tuned them back in sync with one another for fantastic shaves. When it first went on the stone, the edge meeting the stone might say it was garbage, but I could tell it was only improperly honed in the past. ...now ask me what test I use to see if my chisels are sharp

I can tell a lot from the feel & sound on the strop. I usually use the same two Shell cordavan strops. A Koken & a Jager. I got a razor shaped piece of steel made in Packistan & just for fun I gave it the whole treatment from setting bevel up through 10K water hones & Yes it felt kind of wonky. Stropped on smooth leather with .25 Micron Dia. spray then on my Koken Shell strop. It felt & sounded different & off in my mind. I tried a shave with it & that is all it would barely do. Stropped it after shaving & two days later tried it again with even worse results.
Yes I could tell on the hones that it was not good material but for me the strop told the real story. Guess I am just different.
Slawman

Originally Posted by jnats

I've honed a couple of Iwasaki Tamahagane Western Straights and they are not a fast and easy hone from glassed edge. So I will say it's all bout the hone feel because they are horrible shavers!

Honestly, for me it's the feel of the blade in my hand before it even touches stone that tells most. I then make it happen when steel meets stone. If it feels rubbish, I don't go through the trouble. On the hone, it's blade geometry. Spine to edge and how it meets the stone. That being said- eg. I've held some Sheffield steel that had geometry problems, and I tuned them back in sync with one another for fantastic shaves. When it first went on the stone, the edge meeting the stone might say it was garbage, but I could tell it was only improperly honed in the past. ...now ask me what test I use to see if my chisels are sharp

You're kidding right? About the terrible shavers bit?