Thread: How polished should my edge look?

I was wondering how polished my edge should look when looking at it with an eye loupe. I have a 5x loupe and my edge looks rather scratchy. Should it be more polished looking? I am completely new to this and am having a bit of a hard time getting my razor to pass the HHT. I have to give it a little slicing motion to get it to cut hair.Is it because of my edge. Also, I was wondering how light do I have to be to get that real sharp edge. I have not put a lot of time into my edge yet though. I would say about an hour at most on and off.I keep getting interrupted by the wife.Perhaps I need more time on the hone to get the edge needed. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I think there are some photo's posted on the forum somewhere, showing mircoscope images of the edge using various grits.

You'll find them using the 'search' function and selecting 'show results in posts'.

'How polished' is pretty relative. Hard to describe. Your best comparison would be to a known shave-ready edge.

I have 5x, 10x and 15x loupes and I would suggest that you find a 10x. It's hard (for me) to see microchips in the edge with less than 10x.

Thanks. I will have to get a better loupe and keep trying.

The way the edge looks as far as polishing goes has nothing to do with sharpness. As a matter of fact your edge could be like a mirror and the razor may not shave at all. You can look at the scratch pattern but basically you do the usual tests especially test shaving to determine when the razor is shave ready.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The way the edge looks as far as polishing goes has nothing to do with sharpness. As a matter of fact your edge could be like a mirror and the razor may not shave at all. You can look at the scratch pattern but basically you do the usual tests especially test shaving to determine when the razor is shave ready.

+1

FWIW, I've had razors that looked mirror smooth under a microscope (nothing but glassy blackness and a smooth edge) but did not shave me comfortably, and razors that looked like they'd been taken to a grindstone (under a microscope, anyway) with perhaps just the very edge a little smoother, and they've been some of the best shavers I've had. Try getting the razor to pass the thumbnail test all the way along the edge after honing, then either switch to a finer hone or the strop, and progress to the thumbpad test and or hanging hair test as shown elsewhere on this site. I've gotten much better shaves since following these seemingly simple tests (again) rather than relying on the microscope, which can be misleading.


John P.

Honing is a all about function and not looks. Use the simple tests and take the razor only to the mike when you really can't work out why your razor does not cut hairs. It may show you micro-chipping or tiny rust spots. OTOH I have recently honed a Cyril Salter razor for a B&B member that would not cut a single hair although the edge looks better under the mike than some of my best blades.

With a 10x loupe you just see a very shiny line but sometimes not the very small microchipping. Nor will you see if the cutting edge is rounded where both bevels meet.

So even with a loupe: there's more than meets the eyes.

A razor needs some teeth to grab the hairs, if you try to get it perfectly smooth under magnification you will end up with a wire edge.
I usually try to remove most of the scratches from the previous hone. By leaving just a little bit of the scratches, you can be sure you aren't overhoning, and that you are leaving the razor with some grip. Learn to go by the feel of the edge, and do your test shaves. That's the best indicator of shave readiness.

I never did a pyramid with this razor. I am going to do a pyramid and then try the thumbnail and thumbpad test and see what happens. I am such a novice but want to learn.

Thanks guys

Is there a preferred pyramid to use? I read about the 1,3,5,3,1 4k pyramid but am wondering if there is a better or more preferred one to use.