Quote Originally Posted by feltspanky View Post
If you have the Shapton 16K you should have not problem touching up your razors. Less downward pressure on the blade when stropping. More shaves under your belt. Are your edges passing the HHT when you complete stropping?
I was thinking the same thing about having the stones (and strops) for anyone who is skilled to do a great job on any razor. Now I need the skilled part. That will just take time and practice. I have two razors, both inexpensive and both have given me great shaves. Of course this is based on my experience of shave quality. I bought my second razor and it came shave ready as claimed by the owner of the site I bought it from. At the time it's shave was much better than the other razor I ad been honing. So, I felt like I knew what a "shave ready" razor felt like compared to the edges I was getting. This gave me a goal to reach. This was 10-12 months ago. Now I think I need to send a razor to Lynn or someone to hone so I can get a shave from what is considered shave ready by people who know. Or, and my preferred option is just to buy a new razor that Lynn or someone hones prior to shipping. I believe SRD does this. That would give me a new toy () and a shave ready razor to compare my honed/stropped razors to.

My two razors do pass the HHT (Hanging Hair Test). In fact I was obsessed with this test for about a month. After a shower I cut off a bunch of my hair. I had read quite a bit about the HHT a year or more ago and was planning on using it to test my knife edges. I read about which direction to cut the hair in based on the "scales" on the hair. I picture them just like the scales on a fish and scaling them. The best I could get on my knife edges was to get the hair to vibrate which is "almost" passing based on what I read. Anyway, with my supply of clean hair I started testing the edge while and after honing and stropping. According to what I had read no two people will always get the same results using this test because of different hair, how clean the hair is or other factors. You just have to do the test several times to get an idea of your results based a lot on the hair. So, you need to always use the same hair source. It's too late to make a long story short but after I was getting the same results consistently I stopped using the HHT. I posted a few times about this and everyone was telling me while the HHT is somewhat useful it's worth very little compared to "testing" the edge by shaving. This has turned out to be absolutely true. However, I recommend anyone learning to hone and strop use the HHT because there is really no other test I know of to judge the condition of the edge until you shave. While not an all inclusive test it is worthwhile (for a while). After using it for a while and shaving also you can soon stop using the HHT. I've seen lots of videos of people tree-topping the hair on their arms as the final test. If you can do that the razor IS shave ready. You are cutting hair above the skin. If the razor will do that it should easily cut the whiskers at skin level. The hair on my arms is very thin and flexible. While I got to the point I could consistently pop hairs with the HHT I still can't consistently pass the tree-topping test on my arms. So while these two tests are extremely valuable I'll echo the comments from the more experienced that the shave is really the only test that really matters. But during the learning process of honing/stropping I suggest newbies (like me) perform these tests. I learned a lot with the tests about the condition of the edges I was honing while honing and/or stropping. I also believe I knew when the HHT became redundant. I think my edges now are shave ready as you have after a few shaves with a razor after a bunch of shaves with a razor that was honed/stropped well by a very skilled person and then stropped between shaves by a skilled stropper. This leads me to believe my ability is improving but not there yet. And I believe I'll get better with time. I just tend to be impatient. Ten months ago I got the razor edge close enough to shave with but with a bit of tugging on the whiskers. This was after I used stones and strop. The shave ready razor I bought didn't tug at all. My problem between shaves was I think I was doing damage to the edge when stropping between shaves. If I used the stones again and then stropped a little the edge was much better (again). Now my stropping between shaves seems to have improved to the point I don't need stones any more but I still require a little coarser tool than just the leather strop. This tool is the webbing strop. I'm assuming with more time and experience I can eliminate the webbing strop between shaves and still get the results (or better) than I'm getting now when using the webbing and leather in the same sitting.

I'd like to make a suggestion to newbies at honing and stropping. Use any test you can on the razor's edge while learning. While the HHT is only somewhat useful at least it's something. Tree-topping hairs seems to me to be a more accurate test. One thing about this test is you are cutting the arm hair in the wrong direction. To result in the hair being cut you need to cut toward the root of the hair. When tree-topping arm hair you are cutting in the opposite direction making it harder for the edge to cut the hair. This means when tree-topping hair successfully the edge is sharper than when you can cut it with the HHT cutting in the correct (easier to cut) direction. While these are not evaluation methods as good as shaving I learned a lot. Any learning is good. I was told several times not to put too much stock in the results of the HHT. While I understand this advice and it is true, during the earlier stages of learning the HHT served me well. You can see "steps" in sharpness level as you hone and strop the razor. Example: After I hone finishing with the 16k maybe I could pass the HHT. Then after stropping, the edge will no longer pass the test. This tells me I have a negative impact on the edge by my stropping. So, I'm honing pretty good but my stropping needs work. Using the tests you find out more about where a problem is in your process. This is useful compared to just honing and stropping and then shaving. If you hone then strop then shave and you are shaving with a dull edge you don't know where the problem is in your efforts. Once you are a skilled honer and stropper you no longer need the tests. My opinion of the usefulness of the HHT is mine at the moment. At the moment I'm a newbie and in a couple of years I may be skilled enough that I recommend newbies not use or worry about the HHT. However at the moment I find using the tests to be a useful learning tool. I could be wrong. My belief may change in the time to come.

If anyone took time to read all this I hope it made sense. Also, I hope you take what I've said as is, coming from someone with extremely limited experience. It's just how I feel now about this learning I'm going through. EVERY SINGLE TIME I've learned to do something new in my life I've developed opinions that in time I find out are wrong. Sometime my opinions seem ridiculous after I'm learned more. It's probably the same now, learning to maintain a razor's edge.