Thread: My razor is too sharp???? I like a duller edge??

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I'm quite sure that they are nearly exactly the same width across the bevels. Verhoeven demonstrated that the limits for the edge width arrive at a surprisingly low abrasive grit, something around 4k or so, and that going up to 8000 grit and higher (he went up to 0.5 micron chrome oxide) doesn't change this fundamental sharpness.

So why do you hone your razors beyond 4k? Why use the yellow side of the norton, or a coticule or escher. Why do people argue about which gets a sharper edge, when the edge isn't getting any sharper? Something else is being done to that edge, something besides making it sharper. Something that doesn't make it sharper as measured across the bevels, but makes it feel and act for all the world as if it were sharper.

Exactly!!! Thank you, Discussion done...

Sharpness is one aspect, and smoothness is another....

The actual thickness of the edge is sharpness, how it feels on your skin is smoothness...

This is what I have been saying all along, any more talking on my part and I will sound like that guy that doesn't like the word "Splash"

I'm not saying that at all. The actual thickness of the edge is only part of sharpness. It determines the amount of resistance the blade feels to break the surface of the whisker or skin. But the other part of sharpness is the cutting friction, which determines the amount of resistance the blade feels to separate the whisker or skin apart. You would think this would be minor, but if you've ever used a splitting wedge to break up firewood then you know that this is actually a pretty major factor, and whiskers are even tougher than wood.

The commercial blade manufacturers lower the cutting friction by coating the blades in teflon. We lower the cutting friction by polishing the cutting surfaces with high-grit hones. This changes the percieved sharpness of the razor, and I guess correlates with smoothness as long as the resistance is still high enough. Teflon seems to lower it too much for an unguarded blade, while reasonable levels of polish are just right, and for a straight razor shaver offer him a greater degree of control over the resulting level of "perceived sharpness" since he values the honing time less than the commercial razor manufacturers. But it's not a perfect correlation with smoothness - there are other factors that affect smoothness, such as bevel angle, presence of different size scratch patterns, etc. And I can have a beautifully smooth-shaving razor that is nonetheless too sharp for comfortable daily shaving - I did this for many months when I was playing with newspaper, before I decided that there really was a limit the level of sharpness I preferred.