Originally Posted by
AFDavis11
I would be more worried about your sense that the blade is no longer evenly honed. Where did you hear about the HHT anyway? Oh, well, the HHT is a great test of honing and stropping. Maybe the problem is in the stropping. Grab a course hair from somewhere on your body and try cutting that. Don't use some fine hair off your head or significant other's hair.
The HHT is done with DRY hair ONLY.
One reason the HHT is a "parlor trick" is because it takes some exceptional work on the hone and the strop to achieve it. I will echo the sentiment that it doesn't make any difference. But, the secret is to spend about 3-4 years learning to hone so that the entire edge gets sharper, evenly, across the entire length of the edge and gets consistently sharper with each iteration. Then, learn to strop, perhaps with just a touch of deflection, on a strop well prepared and strop a lot of strokes on the strop to get it as fine as possible.
Then, and only then, will the blade be only good for 4 shaves . . .