Thread: So sharp it's dull?

So, I got one of those pasted strops from TheWellShavedGentleman.com, which really did wonders for my blade. But today I was messing with it, stropping and testing the edge while in the actual act of shaving. At some point, I did ten passes over the regular strop side and I suddenly found that I didn't seem to get any friction against my face at all. This was late in the shaving, so I was just trying to pick up stray stubble I may have missed, but this isn't the first time I've been at that stage, and I've never experienced this sensation before as though I was running the back of a butter knife across my face.

Like a genius, I worked at it, trying to see if I could get some traction going. I cut myself three times that way without ever feeling any drag. I'm thinking maybe the damn thing is sharp. Am I crazy here?

You may have overhoned the edge. Did you test its shaving ability on the arm-hair?

Yeah, I was able to get the tops of the hairs to pop loose, though it didn't happen as easily as it appears to happen in the videos. Still, that strikes me as pretty sharp if it happens at all.

Wait until tomorrow and if it starts snagging when you shave or doesn't shave at all, you'll know you overhoned the edge.

That sounds very much like it could be an overhoning. The edge would then be too thin and fragile to shave. If that's the case, you'll need to knock that off by draging the edge through a cork or something similar and going back the the 3µ paddle or whatever your lowest grit is.

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