Thread: Static sensation when testing edge on arm hair?

When testing a razor on my arm hair after honing or stropping, I can generally predict how sharp the edge will be before it actually touches a hair. As the edge moves near my arm hair, I get a slight sensation of static where the hair is attracted or repelled by the edge. If I feel this slight static, the razor will easily pop arm hair well above the skin. If I don't feel it, it won't. The sharper the edge, the more noticeable the static, even though it's still very slight.

Has anybody else noticed this? Any idea why this happens? If it was just static build-up from friction alone, it seems a dull razor would do the same thing, but it doesn't.

Thanks

Hmmmm, that sounds pretty strange. I haven't experienced that, but I'll watch for it (unless you are just jerking my chain).

Wow - I wish that happened to me - never noticed it before! I usually think that I am there, but the hair test sends me back to the hone!

Seriously, though - your razor would have to pick up a charge: with a stone, water, and a direct path to earth you have to figure out how that is happening. Do you wear a lot of man-made material? Is your hone separated from a path to earth - rubber feet or plastic box, for example? It's certainly food for thought!

I have posted before about magnetism - it can be induced by stroking metal in a particular direction, that is magnetic north. Perhaps your keener blades are stroked in that direction more often?

Regards,
Neil

I have noticed the static in hollow ground razors but not thicker blades. I haven't made the connection between static and sharpness though. I will start paying attention to that.

It sounds like Occam's Razor theory at work to me.


I wonder, how often is this "sharp razor" the same one that gets the most stropping before you test?

That static you feel is the razor cleaving air molecules into it's component ions. You got a sharp razor there buddy!

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Any idea why this happens?

For a given static charge voltage, the sharper the edge of the charged conductor is, the greater the electric field strength is. That's the reason air ionisers use pins as sources of ion streams.

A theoretically perfect blade edge would have zero width and generate an infinitely large electric field strength. Sounds like you are getting close to a perfect edge there!

Will the presence of electricity effect rust formation?

I have never felt any static electric effect on my arm or hair from a straight razor. Do you experience any other unusual electrical effects in your life? It may be something particular to you or your environment. I'm in the Northeast (MA) and it's relatively damp here. Are you in a very dry area? Static can be a huge problem in Alaska for instance where I used to install computers. The humidity there is really low in the winter.

As a tangent to this, I do have a couple of razors that have "Magnetic" and "Electro Magnetic" etched into the side of the blade. The blades are magnetized and my guess is that it was a marketing ploy at the time. Haven't noticed that they shave me any better than non-magnetic blades.

It may indeed be just coincidence, or a dry indoor winter environment. We've been having a long drought here. I think I successfully honed my first razor after two months of trying only last October.

When I first noticed this effect (and it is slight) was the first time I successfully honed with my DMT8K in October. At the time, I just chalked it up to friction from honing. This was before any stropping.

What got me thinking about this was recently honing up two razors in fairly quick succession. They felt sharp on the hone, and felt sharp using TPT. Yet when I tried them against arm hair, no go. After repeated tries, I noticed this static-y sensation, and they popped hairs.

Then again, this is probably coincidence. Or that I have carpeted floors, so it's plain ol' friction static being conducted by the steel due to time of year. Or that I am mistaking the sensation of very fine arm hairs that I can't see getting grabbed and popped, and it feels like static when it really isn't.

Thanks for listening, I wondering if this was a common thing, or "tell" of sharpness. I guess we all have our honing quirks and eccentricities.