Thread: Some thoughts on HHT

I wonder what normal people are thinking when they read the posts here at SRP?

Originally Posted by pcb01

I use a combination of the HHT and the TPT. AKA HTPHTT.

Procedure: Take a SHOKT (Standardized Hair of Known Thickness) and place across thumb pad. The thumb must be soaked in 16 year old Lagavulin (12 year Caol Ila may be used in a pinch). It is essential that the hair lie across the long axis of the digit. Failure to do this will lead to misreadings.

HTPHTT 1: The digit is severed, the hair is not.

HTPHTT 2: The hair "Plays piccolo" or shreds unevenly with a screeching, Italianate tenor. The thumb bone is exposed.

HTPHTT 3: The hair wants to, begs to, beseeches itself to cleave in twain, yet, alas, does not. The thumb is lacerated. Butterfly stitches or tender kisses from SWMBO suffice to heal it.

HTPHTT 4: The hair is cut. In celebration, you accidentally draw your thumb across the bevel. The digit is severed.

HTPHTT 5: At the first touch, the hair magically disappears, and leaves behind a dusting of gold and rainbows and unicorns. The shave itself is disappointing.

Completely awesome!:cheers:

Wait, there are normal people....on the INTERNET?!?

All jokes aside, Jimmy, very informative and very pertinent. Great post.

Originally Posted by abiank350

I wonder what normal people are thinking when they read the posts here at SRP?

Normal? Here? If it were normal, we wouldn't be here. HHT - one of those topics that needs circulation about every 4-6 months. 6 mo ago, I tried one of Glen's Shapton edges. Keenness was off the charts - and I couldn't sever a hanging hair. Then I tried an asagi edge from the honorable Riooso. TPT was so-so. HHT was only low numbers if it was in a good mood - or not at all. And that blade still cleared a cleaner path than any I owned or have tried. $$$ later, I'm loving the eastern rock and now sacrificing on the altar of the Coti. If Eschers/thurrys ever get affordable again, I'd love to try those too. If the shave is good, I won't care about hht.

I hate ruin the fun, but in all seriousness:

My personal experience is that the HHT is just this side of useless. Nothing new there.

I don't do HHT, and my TPT test is actually done with the pads of 3 fingers at a time. (It's what I'm use to and is quicker...for me) I use my thumbnail at first during bevel setting and once it passes that then I use the 3 finger pads until the end which I'll describe:

I have been shaving little bits of hair off the back of my hand and arm for so long that a very quick "test run" tells me a lot. "Will it shave hair" is not the question. How low of an angle I can use, how little pressure I can use, how loud**, and how much "tugging" and whether the hair is laid down on the blade or magically vanishes all combine to give some useful feedback. A "slither" motion helps me as well as it can pinpoint a lesser area in the blade. I usually only use it to make sure I am done, or pre- test shave in the case of razors.

**This will vary greatly from razor to razor, so you must "learn" each and every tool. Full hollows will always be comparitively "loud". My 64HCR woodworking chisels are dead silent, if I hear ANYTHING it isn't sharp.**

...and yes, you've got to learn your hair as well, the hair on the outside edge of my hand is the coarsest, inside of my forearm the finest.

One more facet of this hobby for you all to chime in on or play with...I've yet to achieve "Rainbow" sharp though.

Originally Posted by abiank350

I wonder what normal people are thinking when they read the posts here at SRP?

Must be happy hour & Jimmy's buying

Take a SHOKT (Standardized Hair of Known Thickness)

I have been thinking long and hard about the standardization of the HHT for some time now.
Since I have very little hair on my head and what hair I do have is very fine, the HHT it something I can only dream about. I've even tried raiding the girlfriends brush, but even her hair is too fine. Either that or my razors are all too blunt...

Nevertheless, I still aspire to one day splitting hairs with my razor.
In order to avoid asking friends or colleagues or complete strangers to donate bundles of hair to my cause, I have been trying to come up with a reliable source of suitable hairs with which to perform said test.

Roll on the SHOKT. (Thanks pcb01).

The SHOKT principle is in fact easily attainable;

Perhaps we should all contribute to buying one of those large paintbrushes. We could then issue each member of SRP with a bundle of hairs from the brush. That way we will all be using similar hairs in our HHT's and there will be none of this "It's different for everybody" talk.

Then we can just limit the deviations from the standard to "It's different for every razor/hone combination" which might actually tell us something useful.

Short of growing a beard and harvesting the hair for future HHT's, this would provide a long term and fairly consistent source of SHKOTs.

Besides, I don't know about you guy's, but my beard hairs tend to curl ever so slightly and I've heard that curly hairs don't lend themselves very well to HHT's...

This has been great fun on this thread, TY you all..

One thing that hasn't been posted yet and I am surprised because Jimmy is the one that normally posts this great bit of testing info...
To learn the tests is really the important part, but if you are learning to hone then how do you learn the tests????
DE blades !!! go buy a cheap 5 pack and get a feel for all the tests, from the TNT the TPT the AHT and even the HHT they will gve you a pretty good idea of the kind of sharp you are looking for...and how they should feel to you personally


Normal people hehehehe don't take 3 inches of the sharpest steel known to man and daily move it about their face and Neck!!!!

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Normal people hehehehe don't take 3 inches of the sharpest steel known to man and daily move it about their face and Neck!!!!

hey this is normal for me, the rest are weird

i did learn hard way. i sharpen the blades and never used tpt etc.
later as i get to learn how to sharpen razor i find out my own sharp test.
i cut hairs in my arm hair and after that i shave test.
this made me learn which part of the arm hair cuts easier etc and when i do shave test i get comfortable shave. without pulling ,razor burn etc.
(looks like i learn backward)
this teach me how shave ready blade suppose be.
then i learn what i will get from 4k norton.
hairs should pop up as soon as blade touches to it.
next i learn 1k norton.
I do remember this was the hardest part.
when to move to next grit after 1k.
problem was my 1k norton was different from rest of the peoples 1k edge.
took my time to find out that not every single 1k stone will do the same job.
lets say
shapton 1k
Norton 1k
Naniwa 1k
ets so on.
Every single of their 1k edge will different.
As long as you have set the bevel correctly on 1k then you should be ok enough move to next hone.
you may spend a little more or less time but end result wont matter.

Now time went i got more experienced and got more stones etc i learned every day.
i got more blades to hone spend more time but never give up.
i think learning honing is depends on personality too.
you have to be persistent .
Tests will help you in certain way but not the ultimate test is out there some one can tell do this or that.
Results depends from too many factors, including quality of stone,blade, user. etc.
As long as you do it yourself and feel for it that will help more then Me 'saying to you get hanging hair test on 1k?'
Sounds crazy right?
Anyway.
hope this helps somehow.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

This has been great fun on this thread, TY you all..

One thing that hasn't been posted yet and I am surprised because Jimmy is the one that normally posts this great bit of testing info...
To learn the tests is really the important part, but if you are learning to hone then how do you learn the tests????
DE blades !!!

Glad you had fun Glen ....... I mention DE blades for learning the TPT in my first post that began all of the fun .... multi tasking while skimming through the OP ? Randydance taught me the DE blade trick when I first came around.