When diong the hair test to check the sharpness of a blade does the hair need to be longer than 1 inch and is grey hair harder to do the test with?
It is probably more that my blades are not sharp enough due to poor stroping.
Printable View
When diong the hair test to check the sharpness of a blade does the hair need to be longer than 1 inch and is grey hair harder to do the test with?
It is probably more that my blades are not sharp enough due to poor stroping.
Well, the venerable Bart left us with Hanging Hair Test, from trick to probing method - Straight Razor Place Wiki - probably the most comprehensive compilation of HHT knowledge ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by woody743
I recently acquired a boar brush, scalped it, and have been HHT'ing happily ever since. Mind you, not everybody's facial hair resembles boar bristles.
Is that a question.Quote:
Originally Posted by woody743
If so, the answer is a definite maybe. The HHT is considered voodoo by many, and the shave test remains the ultimate sharpness test, obviously. If in doubt, have your razor honed by one of the members advertising the classifieds.
As the owner of lots of gray hair, I can tell you that my gray hairs are more brittle and easier to cut with the HHT than the dark ones. Hope my arteries are not in the same brittle condition! YMMV.
When shaving your arteries, always remember, it's down, not across.Quote:
Originally Posted by Croaker
A member of this forum told me the only real way to test if a razor is ready to shave with it is to lather up and shave. My straight razor teacher tells me the best way to tell is to attempt to cut paper with it.
Pray tell, does your straight razor teacher sell hones as a sideline? :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
I have a full head of silver-gray hair. I can tell you that I think it really depends on the fineness of the hair itself. I found that testing my razors on my arm and leg hair is totally different than the hair on my head. The arm hair pops right now. The gray hair, on the other hand, since it is so fine takes a much sharper edge to do the HHT successfully. In the wiki under hoaning there is an example given by the last gentleman doing the HHT with the blade up and stroking the hair against the blade. That is how I test everything only with my fine gray hair. Blades shave my course beard with ease every time.
___________________
Ray
:rofl2:Good one! ROTFLMAO! Wish it was as easy to remove arterial plaque, as it is to plane off gray whiskers with a straight razor.Quote:
Originally Posted by BeBerlin
If you are talking about the hanging hair test, it is more of a parlor trick that a real test. I have a number of razors that fail this test and shave great and some that pass the test but give a horrible shave. The only test that counts is the shave test.
This.... I have 4 razors passing HHT that i am taking back to the stones....Quote:
Originally Posted by fccexpert
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
Make that two members!Quote:
Originally Posted by fccexpert
Actually, here are just a handful of others some of whom are professional razor sharpeners who have sharpened thousands of straight razors
Quote:
Originally Posted by majurey
Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaptain_zero
Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Other tests can have some value depending on what you are looking for as far as improvement to the edge during honing, but none do nearly so well as the shave test for determining whether or not it will make a good shaveQuote:
Originally Posted by Lynn
:gl:
Very well said! I still do the HHT - probably out of habit, and most of the time the test works even with my baby fine hair. I guess I like to observe "HOW" the test passes. Sometimes it's a crisp "pop" - but the best is the "silent" result - when you just touch the hair to the edge and the hair falls away "Silently". It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I know I'm in for a hell of a shave. But saying all this, there are times when it wont pass HHT, or I have to practically saw that hair in half for it to pass, and I will get a wonderful, great shave! ....Go figure!Quote:
Originally Posted by fccexpert
It really amounts to the characteristics of the individual blade itself, i.e., the grind of the razor, the type of bevel that has been put on it, the edge itself, maybe slight differences in how you have honed that blade, the metalurgy of the steel itself, all of the above, etc., etc.
I have a "John Barber" that is a very unusually shaped razor. It's a 5/8, and has an extremely thick spine for it's size. Usually a razor with a spine of that thickness is usually a much larger blade (7/8, 8/8, ect.). It like a man who is very short, but a very large man at the same time. Anyway, there is no way I can ever get that razor to pass HHT, and yet, it will give me my most best shaves in all the world.
Go figure, go figure, and go figure.....?????
Steve
Go watch that Livi video that the Octopus posted in one of the other threads. Even he takes the blade to his whiskers to determine when he is satisfied with sharpness.
Haglahoo & Co. well said. Get shaving & stropping, then you will know. There is no substitute for experience.
Pabster:gl:
No my shave teacher does not sell hones, his job is to sell straight razor shaves to anyone who walks in the front doors of the Art of Shaving. He is teaching me the art of the straight razor shave as a side line which also takes a tad bit away from his real job, much the the irritation of his employer.
Just my 2cents, JB listen to the LOGIC :thinking: of these members who have been honing for a time and some for a living. In the end your not shaving paper your shaving your face.:gl:Quote:
Originally Posted by hoglahoo
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
He uses some kind of shavette to shave customers, correct me if i'm wrong here.
What is his background with traditional straights and everything that goes with it?
Lee your search abilities amaze me my friend :bow
That list of quotes is quite impressive....
Oh noes... Dont stroke his ego any more. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Since I am new to straight shaving , stropping and everything else that goes with it, my shaves are getting harder instead of easier. I blame it on my stroping. I did send my razors out to get honed so they were sharp 2 weeks ago. I will have to be patient and keep trying.
Thanks to everyone
Which end do you hold?
Hair surface 3D Image: Image Library [Biology : Hair]
The information I have on this is to hold the hair with the root end out, but if it doesn't work just turn it around and see what happens. This is an interesting subject here on the forums. Most feel this test is a parlor trick, and perhaps it is. The real and final test is in the shave itself. I do use this test after stropping just to confirm I haven't screwed the edge up. Other than that I don't think it has any usefull purpose. Just MHO.
_____________
Ray
I'm finding the same thing. I bought this lady at an antique mall, just to mess around with honing to see if I could get an edge on it. The scales aren't chipped at all. I realize the blade is stained, nothing a little TLC and some Brasso cannot take care of I believe. It's a 5/8...Quote:
Originally Posted by zepplin
Attachment 25998
Attachment 25999
The edge was horribly nicked up. So I ran it along the diamond stones on my Spyderco Sharpmaker a couple times (not in the flat mode, but vertically, to grind the metal down and put a 40 degree edge on it). Knicks were then gone.
I have a Norton combo, brand new. I used the agressive pyramid twice, then I ran through the conservative pyramid 3 times. The last two times on the conservative pyramid, I stropped 35 times (plain leather) after each session.
So the wind-up is, I am definitely cutting hair on my arm, to the point the underside of my arm looks kind of hilarious at this point. It chops hair off my arm big time. I did the TPT, I could swear it even took a tiny layer of skin of my thumb. I did the TNT, and it's definitely cutting into my thumb nail, not just zipping across the top of it. But I'll be damned if I can get the HHT to work.
I dunno, guess the only real thing I can do is give her a pass at my next shave and see what happens.
I know you've read it above, but one more time, the true test is the shave.
Please, don't cut paper with your straights unless you are looking to hit the hones again. The only thing you should be cutting with you razor is hair and sometimes skin if you loose concentration.
If you really want to do the hanging hair test and you need to ask questions such as how long the hair needs to be or is the hair too fine the test failed. I like to shoot for 100% on anything I do so cutting 60% of the hairs based on length or fineness is not passing the test. The hair test should pop or silently and quickly cut the hair to be a successful test. The razor does not need to be that sharp for a comfortable shave, but when it is and you don't have a wire edge or chips (micro or otherwise) you will enjoy the shave if you are comfortable with straights that sharp.
As I mentioned in a post a while ago, I used to perform the HHR test after honing every blade. The results became so predictable it wasn't any fun anymore. My son still likes to do it from time to time. I had a few straights with me once when I stopped at a gun shop to discuss metal finishing. THe owner and I got into a discussion around honing. I broke out a C-Mon I had with me 'performed' the HHT. I didn't know for sure if it would work because I didn't do the test on that straight. Got one of CarrieM's fine red hairs and was lining the hair up for the test but it touched the blade and split in two. Needless to say, the gun shop guy was impressed.
If your blade is not as sharp as it was two weeks ago it may be your stropping or other damage to the edge. Pressure of any kind from the side of the blade on the edge will damage the edge and bend the bevel. The trick is, no pressure while shaving, stropping and no pressure even when wiping the lather off the blade or wiping it dry.
Take a good close look at the bevel on the blade. Does it look wavy? Get a toothpick and lay it on the blade from spine to edge and slowly, w/o pressure slide it off the edge while moving it along the edge. Do you feel it catching on one side or the other? The wavy bevel may be caused by pressure while wiping the blade. The tooth pick would show if you rolled the edge while stropping.
Good luck.
I agree that the shave test is the most important test, but the HHT, in my opinion, is a good indicator of when you want to try shaving with the razor. If a razor I'm sharpening doesn't pass it then its going to be good friends with the hones till it does. If you have finer hair then you might want to get some from your SO, but then again, when you get good results with finer hair then you'll know that you've got a really sharp blade. Sometimes I like to test an edge with cat hair (I've got enough of that stuff around). If I can get a cat hair to pop on the edge then I know the edge should be pretty good-- but you do usually have to kind of finesse cat hairs.
In the Livi video that was referenced earlier, you'll notice that he tests the blade on a bunch of hairs that he has tied together before he tries the razor out on his face. Its a tiny bit different from the HHT talked about here, but I think the principle is the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by warpigs421
TNT test is bad news once you get past the lower grit hones, the bevel setters. Once you get up to 4k and above, you can ruin your beautiful edge.
btw... i am officially done with HHT :) had 3 razors that passed hht no problem,but shaved like crap. Now they dont shave hht, but shave great. Maybe i just dont like a supersharp blade, who knows...
