Thread: Are all blades the same?

I know of no test that has the ability to give a quantitative or absolute value RE keenness of a razor so it's all a matter of what's relative and the users experiences.

That being said I think if the honer really knows what he is doing the razor, even a damaged one can be brought back to shave perfectly. It may take a honemeister to do it but it can be done.

if you talk to those that have a lot of razors and been doing this thing for years they will tell you there are some razors (relatively few) that are special. They shave special and feel special and their special attributes cannot be duplicated by any amount of honing. Why are they this way? Probably an accident of birth with perfection in all phases of manufacture. Many think they have razors like this but in actuality they don't because they are so rare. I have over 100 razors and I have just a very few like this. There are probably less than 5% of all razors are like this.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

That being said I think if the honer really knows what he is doing the razor, even a damaged one can be brought back to shave perfectly. It may take a honemeister to do it but it can be done.

I remember hearing that often when I first started off, and I beg to differ. Shave perfectly to me means, I won't need a second pass.

I think some razors, especially those with wider bevels will never shave as well as they once did, and this regardless to what magic the "honemeister" performed on them. You can add layers of tape and perform other hacks, they will shave, but not perfectly.

I used to hoard razors, now I have 8 or so, that all shave perfectly in my books. What do they all have in common? They all have well executed full hollow grinds, the steel is on the softer side and they have tiny bevels. I have yet to find a modern production razor that presents such characteristics.

I've always found the number of passes required has little to do with keenness of the razor and more to do with the characteristics of your beard growth and how well you have access to certain areas relative to the stroke.

I shave every morning and imagine that my beard growth is pretty consistant.

I will occasionally shave with a SE razor ( a high bench mark as far as keenness) and one pass suffices.

Having said this, I have found that there is an obvious correlation between number of passes and the keenness of the blade.

I notice this correlation more with one days growth. If I have a couple days growth, I will usually do a second pass.

So what do you suppose the absolute difference in "Keeness" is between a Machine ground SE blade and a well honed SR is ???
What grit to you suppose that SE or even DE is ground on ??

Originally Posted by gssixgun

So what do you suppose the absolute difference in "Keeness" is between a Machine ground SE blade and a well honed SR is ???
What grit to you suppose that SE or even DE is ground on ??

Found this discovery channel video, but it doesn't specify what grit is used I am afraid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9PnTPIKd3g

But that is besides the point I am trying to make, which is that not all razors can be made to shave perfectly.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

So what do you suppose the absolute difference in "Keeness" is between a Machine ground SE blade and a well honed SR is ??? What grit to you suppose that SE or even DE is ground on ??

You're raising some excellent questions here, Geln. What do you think the "Keeness" is? Just askin'.

Originally Posted by Badgister

Found this discovery channel video, but it doesn't specify what grit is used I am afraid.

But that is besides the point I am trying to make, which is that not all razors can be made to shave perfectly.

Great Vid

The info I remember was from Feather Blades and they were talking about using a 3k grinder as a final polisher,, Actually bragging about that

I agree that not all blades shave great, no argument from me at all there.
What I do not agree with is the idea that SE or DE blades are somehow way Sharper/More Keen than SR's that simply is not what Prof. Vorhaven found when testing actual keenness...

His paper is linked in a few places on here.. it might be spelled Voerhaven some good reading in there about what he found on what is "Sharp"

I never suggested that DE or SE blades are always sharper than straight razors. They are consistant however, which is why I used it as an example.