Thread: How sharp is sharp?

To me a paste is just another tool with a smaller grit. Many people who have honed thousands of razors continue to use them and there were definitely different pastes like graphite, pigments, and hone dust that were used back in the day. On the other hand many people today refused to use anything but a hone and leather. If that's your thing there is nothing wrong with that. For me I both shave right off the stone/strop and use a balsa strop with pigments. Nothing wrong with that either.

Originally Posted by mike1011

To tell you the truth when I first started reading this forum. I thought allot of what I was reading(in the context of razor edges) was just hot air from a bunch of guys that like messing about with bits of rocks and pastes. Sharp is sharp, its either sharp and it shaves or its blunt and it doesn't, simples......right!!............wrong

My dad told me something very early on in life and i remember it very clearly. He said "son let me give you some advise, if I teach you nothing else in life please remember this.

Everyone has their own story and skills, they could be a high flying millionaire or a homeless man on the street it doesn't matter they still have a story to tell. If someone tells you something, listen. Even if you think you know it all, or you think the person speaking is just full of bull s@#t..... Listen. At the end of it you can walk away and think yup what a load of old tosh that was. BUT you also might learn something, even if 99.9% of what the person says is rubbish or they are telling you something you already know. It is that 0.1% that is important and had you not listened you won't have got that little bit of information you can use. It costs nothing apart from a bit of your time to listen, the information you learn however can be invaluable"

With that in mind I have carried on reading about this here razor honing and after reading some things I have tried them out. I was waaaay off the maso with my initial assessment, there is certainly much more to this razor honing than meets the eye........but some of you knew that already

Let's be honest, getting an edge on a razor that is sharp and can shave hair isn't difficult (assuming you have the right tools). I managed to get an eBay special to shave ready (shave ready in this instance means it will shave face hair without pulling etc) in an hour or so having never honed a razor before, though I do have plenty of experience with other edged objects.

I think you could sit a guy down who has never honed anything before and give him a razor(with no geometry issues), a set of hones and a basic honing guide. Within a few hours I think they could get an edge on that razor that will shave.

I have now honed 18 razors(a tiney amount) and by reading the posts here and trying a few things out I have found that simply getting an edge on a razor that will shave is only the begging of the story.

Though all 18 razors shave. I have only managed to get an edge on two of them that has left me thinking, "wow that was a sweet sweet shave". At the moment I don't have the skill or experience to know if that is due to my particular preference in a razor or if I have done something different while honing.

I will continue to read and try new things so that I can find that perfect edge for me, and find it consistently.

In the mean time I thank all the guys here who take the time to share their knowledge and experience with us all. Without them I would still be thinking sharp is just sharp when in actual fact sharp is just the start of the journy in finding that sweet edge(that varies from person to person), and finding it consistently.

Welcome to the honer's version of the perfect wave

Originally Posted by onimaru55

I'm not clear about the word "jagged". Almost sounds like stropping is undesirable ?

Perhaps jagged is the wrong word. I have been looking all over for the old barbers manual with pics of what I am trying to describe. Maybe saw blade would be a better way to describe the very edge. It is certainly not a perfect 1 line of steel.
And stropping never hurt a thing, unless it just wasn't enough.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Perhaps jagged is the wrong word. I have been looking all over for the old barbers manual with pics of what I am trying to describe. Maybe saw blade would be a better way to describe the very edge. It is certainly not a perfect 1 line of steel.
And stropping never hurt a thing, unless it just wasn't enough.

They do believe in "teeth" in the old manuals but all the m'scope shots don't support this in the finished product. It is more a slightly wavy line.

It may just be semantics how we describe it but ultimately we know that an edge of a certain width, 0.45micron, IIRC , will slip between the hair cuticles & slice that stubble away regardless of the edges contours.