Thread: Hanging hair test

Originally Posted by meleii

I also feel I should add that when shaving the edges feel fine and comfortable when I'm done I just don't want to spend too much time on the 6k. My progression for a flea market razor is typically 800/1k depending on condition 4k 6k all king waterstones then a 2 sided king midas barber hone (cream side).

It always seems like my hair just doesn't like being cut. Even with the sharpest razor I have it takes 4 passes. Wtg, xtg, then 2 atg for a BBS shave.

Do you use a loupe/microscope to look at the edge? I picked one up for like $12 at radio shack and just check the bevel to make sure the scratch patterns from each preceding stone/grit level are completely removed and the bevel is equal. The differing scratch patterns are fairly easy to see and differentiate with that particular microscope - I think it is a 60-100x power. Just what I do to check the bevel and make sure it's time to move to next stone... Works very well for me.

Cheers,

JC

I have one on order.
This is the one that I ordered.

http://www.widgetsupply.com/product/...-30x/WC05.html

The HHT needs to be developed, as Glen and others have said, through assessment and correlation with the shave. Test, shave, calibrate. Repeat.

It has good intra-rater reliability if developed empirically over time but, IMO, very poor potential as an inter-rater measure. So when you see people talking about HHT-1, HHT-2 etc, end in, end out and so on, take it with a large grain of salt. What works for them may not work for you, and vice-versa. This is mainly because the variation between people is too great to make the HHT a useful between-person measure.

In the end, as others have said, a razor is meant to shave. So shave. Edge tests (of any kind) are only really useful for situations where shaving with the edge is prohibitive or inconvenient in some way, such as for people who hone a lot of razors. For most of us, shaving is the end game. For example, when you buy a car do you test drive it or do you stick in on a dyno? IMO the same should apply to a razor.

James.

Originally Posted by meleii

I have one on order.
This is the one that I ordered.

30X Illuminated Jeweler's Loupe 20mm White-UV Light

Thanks for sharing that link! I've been wanting one since I saw one at the razor meet in Yakima and was wondering where to pick one up.

donv

In my limited experience, the best way to test a razor is to sweep your arm hair up, and then attempt to cut it 1/2 inch or higher off your skin, the higher it will pop hair, the better. If it will pass that test, generally they will shave pretty good. Easy as that. If you have no arm hair, can't help ya.

I am interested to know how you came to the understanding of the HHT that you had before posting this thread.

These questions about HHT and it not working are very common. I've been trying to address it with tweaks to our wiki entries on HHT, assuming that's where people got the information from... It would be very helpful to know how you discovered HHT as a test, and then where you learned more about performing it (obviously at least part of that was from Youtube).

Thanks!

Originally Posted by meleii

I also feel I should add that when shaving the edges feel fine and comfortable when I'm done I just don't want to spend too much time on the 6k. My progression for a flea market razor is typically 800/1k depending on condition 4k 6k all king waterstones then a 2 sided king midas barber hone (cream side).

It always seems like my hair just doesn't like being cut. Even with the sharpest razor I have it takes 4 passes. Wtg, xtg, then 2 atg for a BBS shave.

I've done the majority of my honing 1k, 4k, 8k and up. Using 8k as the shave test parameter before going further up. I don't know how well a 6k honed razor would feel since I've never had one. Maybe just fine, maybe it could use a little more ?

I do know that my skin will not tolerate 4 passes. I do 2 and some touch up in a few neck areas or I get razor burn, and I know how to shave. Five, almost 6 years of pretty much daily shaving with a straight have developed my skills at stretching, guillotine stroke, blade angle, and angle of attack. I've gotten to know my peculiar facial geography so that shaving is efficient.

I'm not bragging, I'm just pointing out that as time goes on we develop our skills and our shaves become easier with improved results. On that HHT, make sure you run the hair through thumb and fore finger to find the root end. The root goes out toward the blade. Leave a good inch, inch and a half of the hair extended out from your fingers. Bring the hair down to the edge at about the mid point of the extended hair and sort of drag it away from the edge as if you are pulling a rope. This will allow the scales that the hair is made up of to catch the edge if they will.

One becomes a "hair collector" when one gets serious about the HHT. There are thick hairs that bend but do not get cut, light ones that are too light to get cut and everything in between. It's a matter of developing the experience, over time, to know which is which and therefore what the individual HHT attempt actually means.

The HHT is not picking up a random hair and putting it to a blade. That is similar to putting a five year old child in a Corvette 427 to see how it runs. It takes experience, trial and error, tracking of results and a little thinking about what is going on. Most just view it as an objective binary test, miss the point, dismiss it out of hand (because they never took the time to understand it and use it effectively) and refer to it as a "parlor trick". Personally, I hope parlor tricks are more interesting than the HHT.

If one learns to do it correctly, something that takes time, then it becomes an absolutely infallible predictor of shaving results. If trying the HHT doesn't work for you, don't blame the hair or the test. Put more work into it.
If you fail a test, don't blame the test.

In my opinion, the HHt is a waste of time and I don't use it any more and haven't for years. The only way it can give you any info on the edge of your razor is if you do it the same way every time with the same hair every time. As has been already said, some hair is thick, some thin, some tough, some delicate. If you are thinning on top and you use a hair from the top of your head one time and the upper side another time and the back another time, the results will be different every time. At one time I collected hair from my wife's hair brush and used that. Even that doesn't work. Too many variables. Is this hair from when she just shampooed or a couple of days later. Did she use the same shampoo or conditioner. Probably not. Is this hair from the top or back of her head. Some hair is just so thin and at the same time tough enough it will just bend when trying to cut it, and some will snip right in half quickly. You would have to be a hair specialist to know what you have at any given time. Just my two cents worth. Mack

So today I tried it on a de and still no luck but my loupe is here so that will help.

As for the info on the hht I read the wiki after seeing people mention it. I also read up on it on a few other sites.

And jimmy the shave from a 6k IMHO could use a little more and the hone I put it on after definitely helps that. It seems a good bit finer. I only go up to 6k on the kings because that's what I had. I always sharpen my pocket and kitchen knives with them, so I am very familiar with the hones.

I would like a suggestion or two for something to follow up with after the 6k. Looking to stay reasonably on the price. Natural or synthetic would be OK with me.

And again thank you everyone