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razor sharpness...
Hey buddies,
can you help me with some questions? I have been practicing honing using my double sided EXIDE barber's hone, and a piece of 12000 grit chinese stone. I could get the thing sharp enough to take some of my arm/leg hair off, but when shaving my face it felt aweful, and left a lot of stubble. It didn't pass a hanging-hair test either. The HHT i thought was the hanging hair test, but others call it the hand hair test- as in shaving the hair off the back of their hand. Well my razor did that alright, but this hair is finer than my beard. So my first question is
#1) Does HHT mean cutting a freely hanging hair with the razor, or shaving the hair off the back of your hand.
Next up, I was thinking about getting a microscope to look at the edge while honing. THe $10 jobby at radiocrap is really only 100X, which to be honest is pretty weak. I brought my razor into the lab today and looked at it under the microscope there. At 400X it looked like a wood saw, with big, ragged teeth that were by no means even. I knew it would have teeth, but it looked like my serrated kitchen knife held about 12 inches away from my eyes. The teeth looked random and fierce. Under 1000X it looked even more so. While I couldn't quite see if the edge was rolling over, it didn't look it... it just looked like really big teeth. (I think I'll name my razor The Big Bad Wolf: TBBW)
Then for sh*ts I opened up a new STANLEY single razor blade and looked at that under the microscope. The edge was SMOOTH. I'm talking dead straight as a bullet shot, with no teeth. Even under 1000X I saw no teeth. HUH! I thought to myself about this, and wondered if this razor could be sharper than I thought and tested it on the back of my wet fingernail. It felt like it was drawing a little less than my straight razor. I tried doing a hanging hair test, and it failed to cut the hair as it fell across the blade. I tried shaving the hair on the back of my hand, and nicked myself twice, though it did take off some hair.
My second question is
#2) why does a single bladed razor have a smooth edge, and my straight razor have teeth? And which one is sharper, or which one will be the sharpest after correct honing?
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It's the Hanging Hair Test. Hand Hair would mean you hold a hair in your hand.
I don't use other blades so I can't answer your second question.
X
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They cut differently. A straight should look like it has teeth. You could probably smooth it out some though. The nice thing about 100x is we can all discuss it from the same reference point. I suppose there is someone here that has seen a razor at 1000x, we'll just have to wait and see.
The HHT is with a stationary razor and touching it with a hair, held by the opposite end of the root. Thus the term, hanging.
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probably because your razor was hand honed on a gritty stone (abet very fine grit) while the Stanley blade was sharpened by laser or a smooth belt running very fast, not grit. Also ask yourself why the jagged razor is actually sharper.
By Stanley I assume you mean Stanley Tools, a utility knife or razor scraper blade. If I am correct, try this go to the drugstore and buy some GEM or other brand single edge razor blades for shaving and compare the two under your scope. The GEM's are much sharper than the Stanley, take it from someone who's shaved with the former and failed to with the latter.
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Alan, check the SEM pics in the link I posted, they are at 3000x magnification.
Nenad
edit:
also take a look at Durfee's micro galery here:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/compo...d,53/catid,36/
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Those of us that use the hair on our arm test by touching the razor to an armhair in the middle of the stalk. Same basic test, just using different hair. Shaving hair off your arm tells you nothing.
What razor are you trying to hone? It sounds like your edge is crumbling or tearing (may be overhoned). There are microphotograps in the library of straight and DE blades at 400x or so, and they don't look *that* different. DE blades tend to have that double bevel, and were a bit more even because of the machine precise honing, but both of them had similar striations and teeth.
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Cutting hair off your arm tells you a lot, if you know what to look for. I do it by hovering the razor high in the hair tips, and look for the ease of the edge catching the hairs, and the pulling sensation on the skin. btw, it is the only sharpness test I use, and I can evaluate the razor each and every time I use it...
Nenad
