all of us are looking for tests to useon out blade that may be a bit quicker than an actual shave test, to that end many rely on the hanging hair test (HHT). After a significaant absence from this baord I have returned and read many comments and questions regarding this test. It is apparent that there is much confusion.

it must be realised that for a GIVEN blade to cut a GIVEN hair in the HHT there are 2 predominant factors. first factor we would call sharpness, in reality sharpeness is an edget hat has been honed so that the edge is very very thin. the second factor is what i call "toothiness" this factor has to do in reality with how rough the actual edge is. is the very edge a jagged jumble of steel protrusions that can easily grab a hair? or are there smooth transitions at the edge that makes it more difficult to grab a hair? Therefore keep in mind the following

passing the HHT is a function of (A) sharpness and (B) toothiness

a balde that is not so sharp yet toothy can pass the HHT. take that edge and smooth it out a bit and it does not.

some examples and maybe some things to look for.

let me preface these by stating I always get my blades to pass a HHT after the hones and before a strop


case A. Honing on the 4000 grit norton. It is not that difficult to get a blad eto pass the HHT off of the 4000 grit side of teh Norton. I can do it. Others can do it to with some honing skill. try shaving with that blade and the results will not be pleasant as there will be irritation. you may not feel the irritation during the shave but you will notice it later. I know this from experiance. Now if you take that blade that can pass the HHT off of the 4000 grit norton and give it a few passes on the 8000 grit nortin there is a good chance it will no longer pass the HHT. Why is that?? its because teh blade has lost some of its toothiness and can no longer grab a hair. if you keep going on the norton you will eventually be able to pass the HHT because the lack of toothiness is made up for by an increase of real sharpness. some people can get a good shave off of this with only leather stropping afterwards.



case B honing on the 8000 grit norton, moving to coticule. you get a blade poppling hairs off of the 800 norton and give it a few passes on the coticule and it nowlonger passes the HHT. Has the edge become duller?? NO! not unless you have a course coticule which is possible, More that likely the coticule has resuced the toothiness and therefore hindered the blades ability to pass the HHT . even though the blade no longer passes the HHT it should provide a smoother shave than what you would have gotten if you had not moved to the coticule.



Case C diamond vs crome oxide. you use a pasted strop with diamond paste and notice that it easily pops hanging hairs or arm hairs, you move on to a chrome oxide paste and it doesnt do so quite as neatly. you havent gone up in grit size so what is the deal? the deal is that the chrome oxide doesnt produce as toothy an edge as the diamond, which is incredibly hard, does. even though the new edge doesnt perform as well on the hair tests it still is sharper and should provide a better shave.


im summary, when you are assessin the edge of a given blade usign any kind of hangint hair test remember that sharpness is only one of the factors that dicate if the blade passes or not. the other factor will help the blade cut a hanging hair but may or may nto contribute to a good shave.