Thread: Harsh Edge?

Can someone explain to me what a harsh edge is on a razor that is otherwise shave ready? Someone mentioned that the really high grit hones may produce a harsh edge and that seemed counter intuitive to me. So what makes an edge harsh?

A harsh edge is one that is really sharp, cuts the hair like nothing but isn't necessarily comfortable on the skin…it's harsh.
I personally find any edge that's been finished on Diamond Sprays harsh…but that's just me, some guys love it.

I've never gotten much out of the 'harsh/buttery' distinction. I shave with everything from the blades I've honed, blades that the pros have honed, to my Feather SS with Feather blades. The shaves are fine, but I've never noticed any harshness nor have any of them seemed particularly buttery.

I have found most of my razors harsh (uncomfortable) right off of a honing. They usually smooth out after a few stroppings and shaves. I strop, pre- and post-shave on an SRD paddle strop.

Originally Posted by JMJones

Can someone explain to me what a harsh edge is on a razor that is otherwise shave ready? Someone mentioned that the really high grit hones may produce a harsh edge and that seemed counter intuitive to me. So what makes an edge harsh?

I believe there are several factors that can produce a harsh shave.

One of those, in my experience, is that an edge that is thin/weak will partially break down leaving both very keen and somewhat dull regions. This is easily achieved with high grit stones if no convexity is introduced near the edge. This type of edge is also very easy to produce with incorrect use of abrasive stropping.

Whether the harsh shave is the result of the edge itself, or the fact that we use too much pressure to compensate for the lack of keenness is another question.

I think this is one that's easier to test for yourself than read and understand. I remember one newbie that thought when people described their razors as smooth he thought they were shaving with the equivalent of a butter knife.

My personal take on this:
I shaved with a shavette for some time, I learned it well enough.
I could get a close (BBS on a good part of the face DFS on the rest with 2 passes) and comfortable knick free shave daily.

I moved on to real steel:
After a short adjustment period (a matter of a 2-3 shaves) I was getting the same results.

What told me the story was my after shave routine, with the shavette I had a good few seconds of sting all over,
with a straight I have a few seconds of sting but it is only in a couple of spots.

The actual shave on the face feels different as well, now granted the weight of the blade plays into this but
I have pushed a few edges on the hone that feel more like a new blade in my shavette,
this is what I think leans toward harsh,
generally a few shaves and stropping or hitting it on CrOx will bring it in line with what I want.

Some say the blade smooth's out or whatever their fancy is for the terminology.
This is when a blade is smooth/buttery not harsh.

So in my humble opinion,
an edge can bet to keen or harsh or whatever you choose to label it to give an optimal shave balancing comfort and closeness.
Again this is just my feelings on all of it.

Harsh is judged by comparing it to something else. I used to shave with feathers in a shavette. That was harsh, but I didn't know it was. A Norton 8k was smoother than that. My film edges were smoother than the feather and the 8k, until I tried a suehiro 20k, and the 20 was great until I learned to finish well on Jnats. Its a slippery slope. My smoothest shave was a factory edge Dovo best. SMOOOTH, but I had to shave an hour later! LOL. But smooth has to be judged IMO by how smooth a blade is relative to its ability to cut whiskers. Smooth and not sharp is no good, neither is very very sharp but you cant do more than 1 pass.

The same way sharp is sharp, harsh is harsh. It's usually very obvious when you shave with a harsh edge because you can't wait for the shave to be over. I find certain mediums like diamond especially .25 and some hones can leave a harsh edge. Usually a few passes on CrO takes care of the harshness.