Thread: Blade Dulls Quickly

Union Cutlery co was and I guess still is the maker of the famed dog's head knives and even more famously the KA-Bar knives made famous by the Marines in WW2 and beyond. I would put their cutlery on par with Case, Cattaraugas, Torrey or any other American brand of the time. Good luck with your razor.

Yes Union makes really good stuff so there should not be any quality issue with your razor.

As far as your sharpness problem my only guess is that the razor is marginally sharp so it quickly seems to dull. A truly sharp blade would not do that no matter how tough your beard is.

I have a KA-BAR by Union and that razor will scare hair....

However one dumb question, is that razor in the pic after you have sharpened it?????

Yes. But, you probably are referring to a part of the blade looks darker. That is lighting or shadow. I noticed it after posting the picture. It is shiny the entire length of the cutting edge on both sides. And, I've examined the entire length on both sides with a 100x microscope. That being said, if you noticed anything unusual or wrong, let me know.

GSSixGun, here's a picture of the blade with a little more care taken to avoid light and shadows. Even in this pix, it looks like there is a pit or chink in the edge. But, there are no visible flaws in the edge of the blade (unless one looks at it under 100x magnification, in which case there aren't that many visible flaws either.)

I am doing better with the quality of my shaves. And, I have almost concluded that my problem was not primarily blade sharpness. But, shaving technique. I have made two adjustments: (1) much more of the time, my blade is held closer to the skin, which means a smaller angle, and much of the time less than the typically mentioned 30 degrees, and (2) almost every stroke is a slicing action like the guilloutine stroke, or some version of it.

With those two type changes, the quality of my shave has gone up significantly, and the sharpness of my blade doesn't seem to be an issue.

So, asking others for feedback... do the above comments make sense and are they typical of experienced shavers? (Possibly, by using slicing strokes of some type almost exclusively, I am in reality compensating for a still too dull blade.)

After shaving, and stropping, the blade still passes the hanging hair test. If that is any indication of blade sharpness.

I am doing significantly better with blade sharpness, and thought I'd repost here with details for anyone who might benefit. As I am new to this game, "trust" but verify everything I say!

I have added or modified five of my sharpening processes:

(1) Hanging hair test technique.

As dumb as it makes me feel, and even tho I'd watched videos of the hanging hair test, I guess I didn't understand it till recently. Skipping what I didn't understand, hair has sections, and each section points away from the root of the hair. Grasp the hair about 3/4 inch from the root (side), place razor under hair pointing upwards, and a little toward the root side of the hair. Raise the razor upwards until it catches in one of the (not visible to the naked eye) sections and snaps off cleanly. If it slices the hair, you're close. If it just slides along the hair, the edge needs more work. This was mistake #1... just not understanding the hanging hair test (HHT.)

(2) Hanging hair test repeated multiple times on each section.

Initially, if a section of the blade passed the HHT, I moved on. No more! When I check a section of the blade now, after it passes the HHT I slide the hair up in my fingers and repeat the test on the same section. Unless the same spot on a blade quickly and consistently cuts the hair, I don't consider it to have passed the HHT.

(3) Hanging hair test used on entire length of blade.

After one location on the blade passes the HHT, I now move my HHTs down the blade about 1/2 an inch. When I started testing the length of the blade, I found that one section of the blade was sharp, and the next section maybe not so sharp. Duh! The whole length of the blade must be sharp.

After doing the above, my sharpness problems were much improved. I'm waiting for a professionally honed (by Lynn Abrams) razor to be returned for comparison. But, at least after #4 below I am now shaving satisfactorily without burning my face.

(4) Strop with red and black Dovo paste.

I have a hanging strop with red (coarser) Dovo paste one one side, and black (finer) paste on the other. After honing, after passing the HHT as per above, I now take 3-4 passes on the red side, and 5-6 passes on the black side. This seems to smooth out the blade. In addition, I inspect the blade with a Radio Shack 100x microscope ($12) to ensure the blade edge has no obvious nicks or flaws. But, I might add, as I am getting a better feel for things, I am using the microscope less and less. Nonetheless, in my beginning stages, it was and still is quite valuable.

(5) Stropping too conservatively.

In addition to the pasted strop, I have an untreated strop that I use for my final stropping. Much is made about dulling or rounding the edge by stropping. The advice is to strop lightly. And, I'm sure this is good advice. However, I now think I was too conservative with my stropping on the untreated strop. I now strop 30-40 times before starting to shave, and 20 times a time or two during the shave.

As an aside, after stropping more aggressively, (and with a little move bend in the strop than shown in most videos), my blade seems to sharpen up (I am sure because of microserration alignment.) Even more important, the shave is smoother, gentler. Prior to this, razor irritation or chapping was more frequent. Now, it feels smooth when shaving, and leaves my skin feeling good.

As a final tip...

Grab a hair brush and voila! All the hair you need for the hanging hair test. But, to perform the hanging hair test, you have to know which end of the hair is the root side. This is not always visibly evident. But, no problem... Hair has sections, and when the blade edge catches in a section, the hair is (hopefully) cut. But, if you can't determine which end of the hair is the root side, drag the blade under the hair shaft toward the end of the hair (away from your fingers), and while doing so watch the end of the hair. When dragging the blade along the hair shaft, if the hair is positioned properly with the root end exposed, the end of the hair will visibly vibrate. If the hair is positioned incorrectly, there will be little or no vibration.

The vibration occurs when the blade jumps in and out of sections. Of course, you want the blade to jump into a section AND cut it!

The above does not work with dull blades. But, if the blade is close enough to sharp so that it grabs in the individual hair sections enough to set up vibration, it will work.

So...

That is my diary entry for posterity. Hope it helps someone...

Larry, this is an excellent narrative of the HHT, and I am now going to go and give it a try. It's obvious to me that you've put a lot of thought and practice into this.

Brothers, let me know how it goes. I'm interested...

I will. Unfortunately, I just realized that if the newly and clearly explained (to me) proper method for conducting the HHT doesn't go as planned, then my future will hold even more rounds of honing! If I don't post a response here for a few days or weeks, you'll know that I'm honing instead of posting for a while!