How do the manufacturers "test" their DE and disposable blades?
One of the things I find so frustrating about trying different honing methods is that there is no unbiased, scientific, quantitative way to "rate" the resulting sharpness. HHT varies immensely by the person's hair, among other factors.
Then you inevitably hear that the only "real" test is the shave test. But once again, its purely subjective. Human beings doing research inevitably (and subconsciously) lean towards finding what they want to find. Its like the audio-phile who swears that his $10,000 "oxygen-free copper" speaker cables just simply "sound better" than regular cables....
But anyway, I was wondering if anyone has ever had any experience in one of the factories where DE or disposable straight blades are manufactured. Surely they must have some sort of impartial test to determine if the blades being spit out of the machines are up to specification.
I remember seeing a discovery channel show called "World's Sharpest" and one of the things they showed was an aparatus for testing and rating the sharpness of various kitchen knives. The machine would press the knife into a stack of paper until it cut through it. By measuring the force exerted on the knife the sharpness could be rated. Also, by repeating the test numerous times they could rate which knives would stay sharpest longest.