Well, my NOS Hess 44 failed the shaving test. Kinda surprising, really. It was passing the HHT test, and I stropped the crap out of it before shaving. It pulled and tugged like crazy. I took a look under the microscope. Wow, was I surprised to find micro chips all along the edge of this "NOS" blade. No wonder it was passing the HHT test so well... it was grabbing on and not letting go... just like it did to my face!

On the bright side, I had just put the scales back on a Puma 85 I had just finished sanding/polishing today, so I sharpened it up and was pleasantly surprised at how well it shaved. From my limited experience, Pumas sure seem like nice blades. This one was very easy to sharpen, and so smoooooth on the face. One kind of odd thing about that blade, though... It "grew" a barber's notch. Over the course of several days in the vibrating polisher, a notch developed in the end of it that looks just like a barber's notch. Removing it would mean taking it to the bench grinder, so I'm just gonna leave it alone, since it's a razor I'm not gonna resell anyway.

Well.. think I'll go sharpen up that Hess for tomorrow...