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

Originally Posted by gssixgun

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...

I respectfully disagree with that.

I am a HHT-ing guy, and I'm rather thorough about objectizing that test. Each time I hone a razor, I observe how the keenness keeps improving till the very last stroke of the honing job. And then some during stropping.

It may be that the finishing hone only squeezes 0.05 micron of the width of the edge. But 0.45 is still 10% keener than 0.50. At the same time, that 0.05 micron means far less if you're still at the 1 micron level (the notorious newbie error of jumping into finishing mode too soon).

"Smoother" is another ambiguous term. If the blade severs the hairs easier, most people will qualify that as "smoother."
I believe many of the pastes are considered "smoother" because they render the edge a tad keener.
What I only partially buy, is that "better glide" theory.
A razor does not cut with less effort because it glides better through the whiskers. It does not need to glide through the whiskers. They're not a block of cheese where the knife needs to still pass through after the cut. The only glide we need is glide over the lathered skin. I don't think we are able to discern much between the different levels of polish we put on the bevel of a razor. I do think teflon fills the scratches, reducing jaggedness of the edge, and therefor reducing the damage to the skin. It irritates less, which also could be called "smoother".

Bart.