Thread: How sharp should a honed blade be?

Originally Posted by Black Beard

I had my razor honed before it was shipped to me.

When I got it I tried the HHT. The blade just pushed the hair away.

Next I tried it on the tips of my arm hair and the result was the same. The blade would only cut at the base of the hair and with some pressure applied.

I then took a hair and folded it in a loop over the razor's edge. As I lifted the blade I felt the hair stretch slightly then cut. Is this an acceptable level of sharpness?

I managed to get a pretty decent first shave with it, but having looked at the level of sharpness some are managing to obtain when honing I can't help but wonder.

I hadn't stropped the blade prior to these tests.

I have since checked it under a microscope and there is no sign of the blade having been rolled and no burring.

Old barber texts taught the student barber to hone their razor until it passed the thumb nail test. Whether or not that level of sharpness coincided with the hanging hair test is unknown, or may vary from case to case.

I suspect that a lot of the guys who are using multiple hones, and using honing progressions, are effectively using their high grit hones as reverse strops, and all that additional honing is a waste of time and metal off of the edge. Better results can be achieved by incorporating the strop sooner than later.

Once the razor meets the requirements of the thumb nail test, it's best to stop honing and go on to stropping. Either on the leather alone, or alternating both leather and linen, until the edge is keen as indicated by the thumb pad test. At this point, the razor will most likely pass the HHT.

Scott

As has been said many times above it's all about the shave. If you're happy with the shave, great!

In my experience stropping made all the difference. I got my razor from a member here and then sent it to another member to be honed. The honed razor didn't pop hairs, either hanging or on my arm, but did shave wonderfully. Though at this time I didn't have a strop. A couple weeks later when I got the strop the first thing I did was give it a few passes, 10 or so, on the pasted side and then 20 or so passes on the non-pasted side. Let me tell you, it made all the difference. I was worried about rolling the edge since it was my first attempt stropping but when I ran the blade above my arm and heard those lovely "tink" sounds I smiled. Now the blade pops hair all along it's edge.

Originally Posted by JCitron

As has been said many times above it's all about the shave. If you're happy with the shave, great!

In my experience stropping made all the difference. I got my razor from a member here and then sent it to another member to be honed. The honed razor didn't pop hairs, either hanging or on my arm, but did shave wonderfully. Though at this time I didn't have a strop. A couple weeks later when I got the strop the first thing I did was give it a few passes, 10 or so, on the pasted side and then 20 or so passes on the non-pasted side. Let me tell you, it made all the difference. I was worried about rolling the edge since it was my first attempt stropping but when I ran the blade above my arm and heard those lovely "tink" sounds I smiled. Now the blade pops hair all along it's edge.

Wow, your strop experience is extraordinary compared to mine! I seem to need to strop 40-100 passes before each shave. I've never noticed a difference with just 20 passes on leather - I might be going too lightly I suppose, but since it's working I guess I will leave it be

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Wow, your strop experience is extraordinary compared to mine! I seem to need to strop 40-100 passes before each shave. I've never noticed a difference with just 20 passes on leather - I might be going too lightly I suppose, but since it's working I guess I will leave it be

In all honesty I have only shaved a handful of times with a straight. The stropping took it from essientiall just honed plus a few shaves to popping hairs. I don't want to give the impression that my 20 or so passes will have any effect on a more used razor, I just don't know yet.

Wow, with 40-100 passes I'd be afraid of rolling the edge. I'm sure as my technique improves I'll do more passes.

I shaved my wifes legs with one of my razors. After the shave the razor felt noticably less sharp. I stropped the buggery out of it and it felt sharp again and shaves just the same as it did before the leg outing
I bought my wife a Venus ladies razor though!

Originally Posted by JCitron

In all honesty I have only shaved a handful of times with a straight. The stropping took it from essientiall just honed plus a few shaves to popping hairs. I don't want to give the impression that my 20 or so passes will have any effect on a more used razor, I just don't know yet.

Wow, with 40-100 passes I'd be afraid of rolling the edge. I'm sure as my technique improves I'll do more passes.

You can strop as much as you like, if your technique is correct you won't roll the edge. Just take it a little slower if you're worried about making a bad pass and harming the edge.

This is odd: personally, from the relatively little experience I have had with my shave-ready 6/8 Dovo I found that I actually got a better edge (and shave) when I decided to experiment with more pressure, which also meant I could strop it faster. I think I was stropping too lightly in the beginning. I had read on this forum about someone measuring the "just holding it to the surface" pressure amounting to 4-5 ounces, which made sense in my mind, so I was very consciously careful of inadvertantly screwing up the edge as a newbie. Now I strop with a little bit of pressure beyond keeping it in contact with the strop, and do it faster and return the edge to better shape than when I started.

I often lose count of the number of passes, but it couldn't be more than 40.

Originally Posted by AxelH

I often lose count of the number of passes, but it couldn't be more than 40.

I guess I could qualify my previous stropping experience by noting that I generally brush my teeth and then strop my razor while my lather is sitting on my face. So about a minute and a half to two and a half minutes of stropping and flipping the strop over from the linen to the leather would probably come out to around 100 total passes for me. It's easy to keep going, but I have to try to remember that it's better to be on time at work with a one-pass shave than late to work because I obsessed on my shave.

yeah, this bothered me for a while when I was new, too. no matter how carefully I honed and stropped, no matter how much I spent on exotic hones from around the world, no matter how many razors I bought, NONE of them would ever pass the hanging hair test! (it should be noted that my hair is VERY fine)

despite all this, my razors shave very well and very comfortably, so in the end, I decided that as long as the razor shaves well, who cares if it will cut a hanging hair? don't get too hung up on it, as long as they shave ok that's all that matters.