Thread: Sharpness test - slicing skin

So I've tried my luck with honing 3 times now. If you want you can read my other thread about it here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...have-test.html

Throughout these 3 honing sessions I did, I was able to see how the arm hair and the thumb nail test can be used to check for a good bevel and evaluate the sharpness of the razor.

Another method I incorporated to gauge my razors sharpness was where I would slice through a calloused layer of skin. I've had a habit for my whole life of picking at/biting off layers of skin around the outer corners of my fingernails. My skin is always in rough shape in that area, so I figured why not slice some off with my spanking new unbelievably sharp razor to even it out. Turns out it's a great way to test the sharpness of the razor.

I remember doing it when my razor was brand new after ordering it from SRD. It was like hot knife through butter. It would just glide right through the layer of skin near effortlessly. I nicked that razor and got some hones to try and fix it up. After taking out the nicks with a 220 grit DMT I tried cutting through the skin again near my fingernails. It was quite obviously dull in comparison. I actually had to 'saw' the skin off with the edge. After finishing the bevel on the norton 4k, I tried it again. It was very noticeably easier to cut through the skin. Then when I tested it the final time after polishing the edge on the norton 8k, it was gliding damn near as easily as the first time I tried it.

I like this test and if I had to rank the usefulness of the sharpness/bevel tests thus far it would probably go like this from most to least useful:

shave test
arm hair shave
slicing skin
thumb nail
permanent marker
unmagnified visual inspection

The thumb pad and hanging hair tests seem utterly useless to me so far - probably because I'm so inexperienced with them, however.

Just thought I'd share.

You realise that cutting anything other than hair with a honed razor will degrade the edge ?
Yes thumbnails are even more destructive on edges but the TNT is only used at 1k & that is a valid test easily corrected at that stage..
I would advise against your test beyond 1k if honing & definitely not as a means to test a freshly honed razor.