Thread: The eternal question: is it sharp enough?

Ok, so I have been straight edging for something like 3 weeks. I have gotton some good results, and had a grand time. Throughout I have dealt with some "tugging", irritation, and razor burn, especially on the chin and neck. After reading dozens of other newbie posts and the replies to them I had mostly chalked it up to inexperience. With no benchmark it was I could assume.

I bought a brand new razor specifically AS a benchmark. A Thiers Issard singing from the classic shaving, supposedly prehoned by Lynn.

I tried the hanging hair test on day one. It didn't exactly cut the hair in half. In fact the only way I could get any effect was to cut the hair very close to my finger, where there wasn't much give. And even then it was more likely to split the hair than cut it.

I tried again today, after stropping it 50 on the linnen, and another 100 on the leather side of the strop. It took quiet a bit of coaxing to get a hair to split.

After reading a lot it doesn't sound like that is how the hanging hair test works.

Is it safe to assume that it isn't just me? I don't want to pay another 15$ to get it re-honed. But, while I am buying my own sharpening and honing set up (I'm thinking a DMT 8k and a 4 sided strop), I still want that benchmark, to know exactly what I'm trying to achieve. Any thoughts?