Thread: Detoothing my Hart

Hi all... I'm going to use a quote I heard a forum member use when describing his Hart razor.. It's super sharp but toothy. That describes mine and wondering how to fix this. I bought mine about 6 months ago and used their honing service they offer. It came to me sharp but no matter what I did I always had some sweepers and the blade just doesn't glide over my skin like my other razors. I decided to send out all my straights about a month ago for honing at another well known company. All came back great with the Hart still having a sharp toothy edge. I have used nylon fabric of strop, green paste side of loom strop, felt, jeans, wool pad, leather, just about anything to try and solve this with no luck... Anyone else have this issue and if so what did you do? Any advice is much appreciated.. Thank you

Forgive me, but I'm not sure what you mean by toothy? my question to you what does your edge look like under the loupe, does it look any different to your other razors, If possible describe the apex because toothy to me sounds like an edge that shouldn't be used and it's not honed correctly, there maybe other factors at play has the steel been tempered correctly.

The heat treatment of Hart razors has varied a lot over the years. I remember honing an older one at a Chicago meet-up. The owner never liked the shave with it and asked me to sort it out. After looking at the edge under the scope I decided to start out with a bevel re-set to fix the chipped edge that I saw under the scope. I started out with a Chosera 600. After about 20 strokes I checked progress under the scope. To say this steel was brittle was a complete understatement. I had shredded the edge as if I had used heavy-handed strokes on a 120 diamond plate! I eventually got the razor sorted out withh a different honing strategy but the point is that I never had seen a razor get chewed up that way. The Harts made later did not seem to have that problem.

Now that Harts have fallen under the Lucas Webster umbrella of crap, I wonder if that has affected their quality? Toothy can translate a few ways but I assume that the edge is pretty rough with microchips, as the "teeth" often mentioned in razor descriptions don't actually exist.

TCM, so you just purchased this razor new from the site 6 months ago?
Where did you send your razors for honing?

Never owned a new razor, so that is unfortunate to hear someone having trouble with one of the manufacturers. I would request a refund if it isn't performing properly. The fact you have used other razors successfully shows you know it is not taking a proper edge.

I have 2 Hart razors, one was bought new last year, the other was off ebay (and is a much older razor) both have honed up really well and shave well, the one I bought new has a slightly wavy bevel (QC not what it used to be) but it shave great, the 2nd older model, has a lovely straight bevel, shaves well, but I feel if I rehone it, it will be a little bit better,
I did notice some mice chipping on the new one when I got it, very toothy as you say, from what I remember I was able to go to the 8k stone after using a slightly different set-up due to some micro chipping, I just checked the edges now and the both look sweet still.

I have heard mixed views on the newer ones, maybe I was just lucky, I have the 6/8 square point with the very ugly black scales, I may change em one day lol.

There have been a few threads about this. I do not have, nor have I honed a Hart razor. However it seems that many people were able to resolve theses issues by micro bevelling the finish.

I have a Hart that I consider to be "chippy". I purchased it about a year ago, but I have no idea when it was made. It may well have been a razor that was returned for quality issues as I purchased it at a heavily discounted price. I spent many hours honing the razor trying to get a decent edge. The edge kept chipping when I tried to hone it. The best edge I could get was by honing it without tape and then honing it with tape to produce a double bevel. I did get a few shaves off the edge, but those shaves were neither close , nor comfortable. It now sits unused. I could not give it away in good conscience.

Originally Posted by RayClem

I have a Hart that I consider to be "chippy". I purchased it about a year ago, but I have no idea when it was made. It may well have been a razor that was returned for quality issues as I purchased it at a heavily discounted price. I spent many hours honing the razor trying to get a decent edge. The edge kept chipping when I tried to hone it. The best edge I could get was by honing it without tape and then honing it with tape to produce a double bevel. I did get a few shaves off the edge, but those shaves were neither close , nor comfortable. It now sits unused. I could not give it away in good conscience.

Sounds to me like there are problems with the temper heat treatment, that's my view of the first post, If I were you I would have returned the razor ask for a full refund, decent steel shouldn't offer a chippy toothy edge full stop.

Try 2 layers of tape

See if that works

Try 3 see if that works

If it doesn't then you have bad Temper

I have seen very Few Harts that wont lock down with two and fewer yet with 3 but that is my end of the line solution with them

Micro beveling can allow you to do these tests quicker

Sounds like a challenge.
Send it to me