Thread: Sensations of Testing After Honing (The "Thumb Nail" test)

For those who wish to know. Straight from the horses mouth (Standard Textbook of Barbering, 1950, p. 23):

Testing the Edge

"After the mechanical action of honing has been mastered, the next step is to learn to test the edge. This is an act that requires training of a delicate sense of touch, and it can only be aquired by diligence and many patient trials. The two rules for testing a razor are:

1. A honed razor is to be tested by passing it lightly over the moistened thumb nail.

2. A stropped razor should be tested by passing it gently over the moistened ball of the thumb or index finger. A stropped razor should never be tested on the nail.

Sensations of Testing After Honing

1. Blunt edge: Passes smoothly and freely over the nail without any sensation.

2. Keen edge: Drags or tends to dig in, but it is smooth in sensation.

3. Coarse edge: Drags or digs in with a slight grating sensation.

4. Rough or overhoned edge: tends to stick, and gives a harsh, disagreeably, gritty sensation.

Sometimes one may detect two or more of the above sensations along the razor edge. This indicates that the razor has not been honed evenly, and there is some fault in the technique of the honing process."

If this information is already in the SRP archive, my appologoies for the redundancy of it, but I thought I'd re-post it here for the ease of those who might have trouble finding it.

Scott