Thread: Hanging hair test questions. Help a newb please.

Ok I'm new to this but I think I know the answer to at least one of my questions. I honed two razors tonight for the first time. After going through a pretty lengthy pyramid on the 4&8 Nortons my blades were looking pretty good so I tried the HHT. Fail on both counts. Back to the stones for an abbreviated pyramid. Still two fails on the HHT. This time I decide to give them the ultimate test, the shave test. After some time with the strop I lather up and get another blade out to finish up when these two start cutting me up or fail to even start to shave. First blade starts of a little rough but does a pretty decent job with the cheek. Next blade, other cheek, very pleased. Long story somewhat shorter, with the exception of the toe on one blade I had what turned out to be a three pass quite impressive shave. So here are my questions:

1. Should I worry about the HHT even though I had a great shave?
2. How could a blade fail the HHT but still give a great shave?

Did you get these razors to cut hanging hairs ? If so you probably need to work on them some more. If you got them to shave with it sounds like you're on the right track. FWIW, I've had them that passed and didn't pass the HHT. Early on in my honing more failed than passed. As I got better, more experienced with honing I began to have better results with the HHT. I do pretty good with it nowadays but if the razor doesn't pass I frequently get a good shave anyhow. BTW, I've taken new DE blades and on some of my hair they fail too.

Originally Posted by Preach

Ok I'm new to this but I think I know the answer to at least one of my questions. I honed two razors tonight for the first time. After going through a pretty lengthy pyramid on the 4&8 Nortons my blades were looking pretty good so I tried the HHT. Fail on both counts. Back to the stones for an abbreviated pyramid. Still two fails on the HHT. This time I decide to give them the ultimate test, the shave test. After some time with the strop I lather up and get another blade out to finish up when these two start cutting me up or fail to even start to shave. First blade starts of a little rough but does a pretty decent job with the cheek. Next blade, other cheek, very pleased. Long story somewhat shorter, with the exception of the toe on one blade I had what turned out to be a three pass quite impressive shave. So here are my questions:

1. Should I worry about the HHT even though I had a great shave?
2. How could a blade fail the HHT but still give a great shave?

The shave test is the only test.

The HHT test works for some and not for others.
I consider it a parlor trick.

A nice dark hair or whisker can be used to
probe an edge. For me I can watch it grab
a little or a lot on sharp and or slide on dull.
Your hair is different so your result will be different.

One well known issue with the HHT is oil on
a blade. Oil kills the HHT. Since most honemasters
lightly oil their blades before they box and ship this
comes up very often.

So do not worry, be happy

my advice is -forget about HHT. Shave and see how they feel, cutting hair does not answer that question.

BTW, forgive me if I came off like a smart ass. It is just that we go through this question all of the time. If you do a search with the keyword "hanging" you'll find 100 threads if you find one. Keep trying the HHT if you must but the main thing is the shave after all is said and done.

Yea I must apologize for doing the very thing that makes me so mad when someone else does it on a forum. As soon as I posted I searched HHT fail and found tons of info. After reading I realized that the HHT before stropping is pretty tough so I got them out after stropping and tried on my arm and they were both popping hairs like a champ. Thanks guys for the quick response and again sorry for not using the search feature. If you want to get me back go over to jeepforum and ask how much horse power you can get from adding a cold air intake.

They should just go ahead and add it to the Forum rules for newbies that you should never say the forbidden word....I think I almost got banned once for mentioning that I tried a HHT in a post much less starting a thread about it. Dude in feel for you...

One thing I learned around here if you say the forbidden word, you will have every mod post to your thread.....

Just kidding mods, it's a joke....... . Really it's a joke don't ban me.........

Originally Posted by sidmind

They should just go ahead and add it to the Forum rules for newbies that you should never say the forbidden word....I think I almost got banned once for mentioning that I tried a HHT in a post much less starting a thread about it. Dude in feel for you...

One thing I learned around here if you say the forbidden word, you will have every mod post to your thread.....

Just kidding mods, it's a joke....... . Really it's a joke don't ban me.........

Hey sidmund, I see your in OK same as Preach. If you're close enough geographically maybe you could show him some of what you've learned...... everything but the jokes that is.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Did you get these razors to cut hanging hairs ? If so you probably need to work on them some more. If you got them to shave with it sounds like you're on the right track. FWIW, I've had them that passed and didn't pass the HHT. Early on in my honing more failed than passed. As I got better, more experienced with honing I began to have better results with the HHT. I do pretty good with it nowadays but if the razor doesn't pass I frequently get a good shave anyhow. BTW, I've taken new DE blades and on some of my hair they fail too.

I'll concede inexperience, but I can't get my blades to pass this test either. One incident I do remember was a hair from my head failing and a hair from a brush passing. What I resorted to doing is looking at the blade in a little Radio Shack 100x microscope I got for something like $15.99 and making the visual examination the test.

Probably the main thing I've learned in all areas of straight razor shaving is that months down the road I will "miraculously" be able to do something I couldn't do before, no matter how hard I tried. Maybe the hanging hair test is one of those things that will come.

My honing has improved a great deal with the help of videos and advice, but I'm probably as good as I can be at this time until more experience kicks in.

Cajun, it appears you learned the Key to the parlor trick that is HHT. Always use a dried out old hair. New fresh ones don't work so well...