Thread: What Does it Mean, Taking an Edge too Far?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The term and it's brother "Over Honed" have been so mis-used that thay no longer mean anything...

To put it as simply as possible,,, I'll give you some numbers (not mine)

The edge will start to slice through hair at about .50 Microns (we do that at 1k) and depending on the the Grind, Geometry and Steel a Straight razor can get down to about .38 Microns.. that's it, period you get to mess with about .12 Microns of metal between 1k and whatever K

As one person has put it on here "I can hone just fine, knowing when to stop is my problem" I always liked that saying
longer...

Glen, are you saying the actual cutting EDGE begins at .50 microns and the edge is only physically capable of .38? Or is beyond .38 is too frail?
If so, it it possible to go too far on the 1k ? The reason I ask is I spend most of my time there.

What Im trying to say is, is this the mythical "too sharp=harsh" scenario?

My edges are consistently very sharp, sometimes harsh, but mostly short lived.
I hope im not stroking them to death!

\-/ .38 microns is good and \/ under .38 is bad?

Pardon my repetition, just making sure I understand fully.

Eric.

Eric that is exactly what Voerhaven was saying,,, His investigations into razors edges, really put the light on for me when it comes to the technicalities of the edges...
Keep in mind honestly this all really means nothing in the grand scheme of things, the razor either shaves close and comfortable or it doesn't.. These discussions sometime do help point out problems and logic behind what we do..

When we all did those experimemts with the 1k shaves, and slowly brought the edges into spec as we worked our way up in grit it pretty much backed up what he forund under the Microscopes too...

The 1k can rip an edge apart and cause actual burrs if they are used incorrectly, but once that bevel is set and all the rough parts are smoothed out we know we can actually get a shave maybe not as smooth as we want but we can shave...

What I found as a surprise was that there was so little real difference between the spot where the edge starts to cut hair and what we consider to be maxed out.. Also Voerhaven said about .38 Microns was where the edge could go, many might not even be able to hit that what he was saying that that is as far as it can go there isn't any more and that limit is determined by the steel and the grind..

Very nice explanation.