Quote Originally Posted by Kees View Post
Until recently all I did when a razor needed a touch-up was 15-20 laps on the Y/G Escher followed by 50 on the Nakayama and strop. After this my razors invariably pass the arm hair test. But not the HHT. Feeling uneasy about this I have been trying the last few months to find a touch-up routine that would invariably lead to an edge that passes the HHT.

Until now no luck. The following works for most razors but not all: 20 laps on the Escher followed by 20-50 on the Tam O' Shanter.. This really suprises me as the TOS is usually thought to be less fine than a Y/G Escher.

So here are my questions

1. why do I get a sharper edge going down the grit ladder?
2. what is your routine that invariably gets you a HHT positive result?

BTW until recently I agreed with those who say that very thin hair is unsuitable for the HHT. Nowadays I feel that if the edge is sharp enough it does not matter what quality hair you use for the HHT.
I am sure you know Kees number of the strokes in any period of honing time is just guessing game.
there is no way someone will tell you exact result of honing after curtain laps.
It depends too many factors, hones, natural or synthetic,pressure ,blade quality and so on.
i have never had any problem to get blade pass HHT.
in fact i never look for it.
i think Every person can get curtain sharpness from the particular blade.
when you hit that point you should stop. Not easy to do so.
Now sometimes you will have max sharpness from blade x and it will pass HHT.
NEXT RAZOR you will get max sharpness but will never pass HHT.
can you make this razor pass HHT answer is yes but should you? i don't think so. if you do so you will end up very fragile edge which will shave half of your face for next half you will end up stropping.
hope this helps.