Originally Posted by
Alethephant
Right now I've been using my wife's hair, which is pretty uniform, and drag it longitudinally along the blade. If it won't cut at all, experience indicates that the blade is too dull to shave with. If it takes several passes, it's still too dull. If it takes a 1/2" or so movement, it will shave, but not close. If it cuts the instant you touch, and does so at multiple points along the edge, then it's ready for shaving. This is presently a semi-quantitative test, and is sufficient to test when honing is complete. Testing by shaving unfortunately has a 24 hr lag time associated with it, even though it is a full-up test.