hht test before or after stropping?

hht test before or after you strop?

Before. After is like shooting fish in a barrel.

X

After . . . here little fishy, fishy . . .

It has no real solid value, so why worry about it . . . now the TPT on the other hand, after as well, and then you'll know not only if the blade is sharp but also shave ready . . .

another equally pointless test of sharpness, the "sell it on ebay and see who bids on it test" is equally of little value and can be done before or after stropping as well.

I shoot the fish in the barrel and do it after stropping. :) If it passes that is fine if it doesn't I shave anyway and nine times out of 10 I get a fine shave. The one thing I do is see if the razor will pop hair held away from the skin and just lightly brushed against the arm or leg hair.

I am actually not relying on that as much as I used to . I hone enough razors to where hair is getting to be in short supply. :shrug: I am relying more on the TPT as Alan mentioned and the shave.

after stropping i test hht if my razor is honed well and passeas on my chest hair then i try with finer leg hair if it passes i always get a good shave i think it is agood indicator i have had it where on one particular razor flys through hht but not at the last part of the ege or not as easy but it has still shaved but when using the last bit of the egde to do my tash i noticed the slight differance.When i first started honing i could never pass hht now 3 years later i can straight of belgiums then strop

I usually just test it to see if it can "Pop" hairs on my arm or leg. Usually a good indication that it is at least close to shave ready.

Oddly enough last night after posting I honed a Geneva cutlery 5/8 on a brown Escher borrowed from hi_bud_gl and passed HHT off of the hone. I usually don't even bother until after stropping but the thread prompted me to do so. I don't know whether it was my possible expertise (debateable :) ) or the brown Escher. :shrug: One way or the other it was HHTing to beat the band and I have some fine hair.

Neither. The HHT is a parlor trick that has no value as a measure of sharpness.

Before, after, and neither. That about covers it.

It used to be after. When that became an almost given I moved to before. Now that almost always happens so, unless my son is around to do the test I skip it. As most have stated it is not a true test for shave ability but when it passes I know it is sharp enough. Now I just test it by shaving arm hairs. Like Jimmy, I am is short supply of arm hairs so I pop them one at a time at several spots along the length of the blade, but they do have to pop, not just lie down.