Thread: Looking at the edge

The boss found a straight razor I'd forgotten I had while rooting around some boxes from our move a year ago. It was an old Torrey with devils spit on the blade and an edge that needed resetting. The edge condition was determined by looking through an old Leitz 5cm enlarger loupe that appeared to offer about 10x magnification, at a guess, under a bright led light source.

I gave it a quick cleaning and polished the blade with metal polish. That greatly improved the overall appearance of the razor but did not quite remove the light devils spit from the blade. I reset the bevel on a 1K Naniwa Super Stone and finished up on a 12K Naniwa Super Stone. Examining the edge after all that revealed a couple of very tiny barely visible micro chips on the edge/apex of the blade.

I have had razors that were shaving perfectly fine for me that when I examined the edge on a whim showed similar very tiny barely visible micro chips too. That being the case I decided to just carry on stropping before use. I gave the blade 40 laps on English linen, 20 laps on a Crox sprayed felt hanging strop and finished with 80 laps on leather. This morning the end result was a smooth comfortable 4 pass shave as good as any other razors I have those very tiny barely visible micro chips be damned.

After all that the question is how perfect does an edge have to be to perform well shaving? For me the answer is perfection is preferred but not absolutely required to nth degree. I am sure someone looking at that edge under very high magnification would have been just horrified to use it.

Bob

I find if there is a couple tiny micro chips and they are spread apart by 1/4 of the length of the edge then i will let them fly for a test shave. I used to go back to the stones if i found even one. What counts is what you feel in the end. IMO.

yeah, that's why i quite using a usb microscope.

^^ Exactly. A while back I read somewhere here that too much magnification may wind up being a liability on the hones. Even using a 10x loupe, I sometimes find it difficult to determine when a micro-chip is worth bothering to fix or not.

I think it depends on your shaving style. Some guys don't need super smooth and sharp.
I would not shave with microchips even USB microchips, that way I get no sting or weepers.
Saying that, synthetic stones are more likely to chip an edge, maybe.

In the pursuit of the perfect shave, I have knocked those off with a light pass on my thumb nail, and a few more passes on the finish hone, to get back a smooth and fine edge. Over time, I too have experimented with what still shaves. It appears to me that most often the micro chipping shows up when I am starting to push the edge too far. The difference for me, is that if I leave the microchip, the edge appears to have a shortened life, as in I don’t seem to get that many shaves before it starts to tug. I am not scientific and do not keep crazy detailed records, but that is what it looks like.

Originally Posted by RezDog

In the pursuit of the perfect shave, I have knocked those off with a light pass on my thumb nail, and a few more passes on the finish hone, to get back a smooth and fine edge. Over time, I too have experimented with what still shaves. It appears to me that most often the micro chipping shows up when I am starting to push the edge too far. The difference for me, is that if I leave the microchip, the edge appears to have a shortened life, as in I don’t seem to get that many shaves before it starts to tug. I am not scientific and do not keep crazy detailed records, but that is what it looks like.

When I said very tiny barely visible micro chip that was from the devil's spit working out to the edge not from pushing the edge too far.

Bob

Originally Posted by JOB15

I think it depends on your shaving style. Some guys don't need super smooth and sharp.
I would not shave with microchips even USB microchips, that way I get no sting or weepers.
Saying that, synthetic stones are more likely to chip an edge, maybe.

Yup everyone is different in what their requirements are. That edge was smooth enough to go 4 passes without any discomfort.

Then you are getting into how much sharpness and how much smoothness you need. There again I think it is personal preference. Me, I prefer smoothness over hype sharpness which I find can be a bit on the harsh feeling side.

I definitely feel that a beginner to honing can handicap themselves by using a USB microscope before they can get good shaving edges using a loupe. After that you have the knowledge to interpret what you are seeing and to make use of what a USB microscope is telling you without driving yourself nuts.

Bob

Not as perfect as you would think. In normal honing, if I can't see a flaw with a 7 diopter Optivisor and a bright light, I don't worry about it.The Olympus metallurgical microscope is for research.

With enough magnification they all have serrations, and I live by the same thing you mentioned Bob, high magnification will not aid your honing, it will reveal all the imperfections of your razor to make you crazy. Honing doesn’t need to be done at that level, smooth and sharp has a lot of imperfections under a microscope, and I demand a smooth sharp razor, yet it gets there with my 12k and leather