Thread: Is my razor sharp enough? HHT says NO! Your thoughts?

1. Your razor is hopelessly dull. Have it professionally honed. End of story, problem solved.
2. The Hanging Hair Test is not a binary test. It has scalar results. If you use it as binary test, it will be useless. Please take a moment to read this document: Hanging Hair Test, from trick to probing method - Straight Razor Place Wiki

"The HHT has a long history of being dismissed as a «parlor trick», especially by people that experience nice shaves without being able to «pass» the test on the razor. They appear to look at the HHT as a binary «0 or 1» test and, getting «0» as result for edges that do shave, they disregard the whole HHT as being erratic. For putting the HHT into use while honing a razor, the above is a faulty assumption. Just like the other tests, such as the Thumb Nail Test and the Thumb Pad Test, the HHT is a probing test, much more than a True/False-type of test. Like these other tests, one needs to learn how to properly conduct a HHT and one needs to learn how to assess the results.
Before diving into the heart of the matter for turning the «trick» into a valuable method of measurement, we should realize that all the tests are merely an aid to guide us through a honing job. The scope of this article is to expand the arsenal of available methods for probing an edge. To use, or not to use, is a question of a personal nature."

And yes, the ultimate test is the shave test. But the HHT has its merits, and all my razors which were honed using it, and passed "HHT-5 - silent slicer", did shave well afterwards. I have seen this work on a whole number of razors (about 40 of wildly varying widths, grinds and whatnot), and that is all the information I need to make this test useful for me. YMMV, as always.