Thread: How sharp is sharp?

stri•a
ˈstrīə/
noun
technical
1. a linear mark, slight ridge, or groove on a surface, often one of a number of similar parallel features.
o ANATOMY
any of a number of longitudinal collections of nerve fibers in the brain.


Stria or Striae, is a common Tool Mark Examinators term to describe a scratch pattern.

And as said in the post, don’t take my word for it… try it.

Of course there are still stria on the bevel that can be seen, just not with 400X. There will always be stria, as long as it is made by grit, just finer and will require a higher magnification to see.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

stri•a
ˈstrīə/
noun
technical
1. a linear mark, slight ridge, or groove on a surface, often one of a number of similar parallel features.
o ANATOMY
any of a number of longitudinal collections of nerve fibers in the brain.


Stria or Striae, is a common Tool Mark Examinators term to describe a scratch pattern.

And as said in the post, don’t take my word for it… try it.

Of course there are still stria on the bevel that can be seen, just not with 400X. There will always be stria, as long as it is made by grit, just finer and will require a higher magnification to see.

Yeah, I know what stria means, I'm Greek. Strangely here, financial crisis aside, you can't finish high school without a degree of knowledge on Latin. Unless if you really don't want to, where, you have to learn quantum physics instead. And, I belong in the later category, but still, Latin sounds too interesting to let it pass by without learning some basic words. Like stria and coticula. Yes, coticula, not coticule.

Where, I return to my previous statement; it does sound cool, but, how do you answer to a question that concerns the edge imperfections using the word "stria" as an oversimplified term to your "not sharp enough" problem?
Generally, the word is used to address geologic formations, but as you pointed out, also in biology. A "slight ridge" or "groove" is not specific enough to the problem of underhoning, overhoning, removing scratches, refining an edge etc.
And, I doubt you are referring to a single line, groove or ridge, so, striae is the word you were referring to. Plural.

"Stria". Is not an unusual or pretentious word to use when describing the scratch pattern on edged tools.

Although I've not seen the term used much on this forum it is extremely common on knife and tool forums

Originally Posted by Euclid440

stri•a
ˈstrīə/
noun
technical
1. a linear mark, slight ridge, or groove on a surface, often one of a number of similar parallel features.
o ANATOMY
any of a number of longitudinal collections of nerve fibers in the brain.


Stria or Striae, is a common Tool Mark Examinators term to describe a scratch pattern.

And as said in the post, don’t take my word for it… try it.

Of course there are still stria on the bevel that can be seen, just not with 400X. There will always be stria, as long as it is made by grit, just finer and will require a higher magnification to see.

We could talk about it, or we can see some photos. Bright light in focus,(blurried bevels have a way of looking scratch free). And multiple viewing angle of the same also.

Proper form in my experience when discussing the term is "striation" (pl. striations) rather than stria(e) (that term is mostly used in geology)...but they mean the same thing for the most part. From Merriam's definition of striation:

: a minute groove, scratch, or channel especially when one of a parallel series

The light is manipulated, if you had more light and a different view, it would look very different. The "mirror" as it was shown was not mirror like in any way as it would be much brighter under the correct light. Ive bought 2 razors from people that have shown me the same thing. They had plenty of scratches. If you want to find scratches, you will find the view that shows them, if you dont, you will find a view that eliminates them. I have the same scope and I dont use it as I find these images to be useless regarding shave quality. I would say with a 20 power loupe and the right light, I would find scratches as well. No need for the 400x.

Hey guys, concentrate on the question not on semantics! most folks can guess a word in context.
~Richard

After honing becomes second nature and diagnosing difficult blades is less of a challenge, there comes a point when you can achieve a level of sharpness beyond that needed to shave. It's difficult to achieve and inconsistent. Because of the difficulty, complexity, and inconsistency you soon realize it's not really important.

You can never impress your beard, no matter how sweet your honing stroke is or how expensive the hone.

You can also get some really bad nicks from a blade that doesn't shave like the others in the pack. I have a beautiful carbon NOS blade from the 50s. But just because I can get it sharper than any other blade I own doesn't mean I really want to.

I have never tried pastes and will must likely never will. If you can hone and shave without pastes their don't seem a place for them.

Going back to scratch patterns as a gauge of when a razor is 'there.' When I first came around to SRP there was a group of guys that were always talking about how it was necessary to remove all of the previous scratches as you progressed through to higher, and higher, grits. About that time, I had begun learning to hone, and was buying ebay razors to practice on. At the same time I was buying razors from Lynn and some of the other experienced, and reputable, honers in the community.

Taking my trusty 40x eye loupe I quickly saw that Lynn and these other guys sent shave ready razors with visible, and varied, scratch patterns. So I saw that the 'removing all of the scratches from the previous stone' was not necessary for a shave ready edge, and I never pursued that method. Figuring that the purpose of honing, in my case, was to get a smooth and comfortable shave, not to admire how shiny the bevel sides might be. I'm not doubting that smoothness of the bevel could contribute to smoothness of the shave, but I never really pay any attention to scratch patterns per se. YMMV.