Thread: does this cut it?

Really I think if you use a light touch, an exceptional stroke, and have patience a razor has to pass the HHT, eventually.

I'm a little suspicious of guys that say their hair won't work with a HHT, especially knowing how long it took me to learn to hone well enough to do it, but if your looking for a razor that doesn't pull I think passing the HHT is an important milestone to pass.

Then again, I think 8 guys out of 10 grab hair out of their head, which is usually much finer than a beard whisker.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Really I think if you use a light touch, an exceptional stroke, and have patience a razor has to pass the HHT, eventually.

I'm a little suspicious of guys that say their hair won't work with a HHT, especially knowing how long it took me to learn to hone well enough to do it, but if your looking for a razor that doesn't pull I think passing the HHT is an important milestone to pass.

Then again, I think 8 guys out of 10 grab hair out of their head, which is usually much finer than a beard whisker.

I doubted my ability to hone for a long time as I'm one of those who has never managed to pass HHT. Then I sent a TI 4/8 to Lynn for honing. Got it back, first thing I tried was HHT and..... failed!

Now there are a many variables regarding HHT, but I reckon using Lynn's honing skills on TI blade removes all variables to do with sharpness and steel quality. So I do believe hair type can frustrate with HHT.

Alan -- I agree with beard hair vs. head hair, but I always assumed HHT was about head hair. If I now have to pluck a beard hair... Owwwwww!

M.

I don't think straight shavers have any beard hair. Chest hair and arm hair work great and if you get really creative . . .

Hair on the head is too fine to really replicate what a razor is trying to do.

While we agree the hair is not simply dropped onto the edge does anyone here know of the theory about testing swords?

Supposedly, in days of Knights and Armour a sword's edge was tested by dropping a silk scarf onto it's edge and the scarf would be cut in half from it's own weight. Does anyone know of this myth/theory and where it was written?

BTW, last day of the remodel, beach time tomorrow!

Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

While we agree the hair is not simply dropped onto the edge does anyone here know of the theory about testing swords?



Tony

Yep, at least the Japanese swords. They were tested by slicing through criminals. You'll often see a number inscribed into the tang to tell how successful the test was.

As to European swords, why bother. All inferior to the Samurai's sword

I used to use the HHT constantly, but now I never do. The reason? I'm using different hones now.

In my experience, the type of hone used has a lot to do with how a razor does on the HHT. With my hair, it works perfectly for the Norton and some of my barber hones.

On the Belgian hones I'm using now, it's almost worthless. Even a great shaving edge will just split and peel the hair rather than cutting it cleanly. This was really confusing for me at first, but I checked with other guys who use coticules and they confirmed this.

Lynn uses a coticule after the Norton, I believe, so that could explain why your Lynn-honed TI didn't do well on the HHT. It probably would have passed with flying colors if you'd tested his edge before he used the coticule on it.

I agree that passing the HHT is just a starting point. When I was using it a lot, I usually got the best results off of the 4K side of the Norton. To me, what a good HHT result means is that you've got a good bevel--in other words, the two bevels meet properly to form an edge, and the edge doesn't have a wire. After that, it doesn't always correlate well to a good shave.

The HHT seems to be one of those YMMV things. It's unfortunate, because a good "works every time" test would shorten the learning curve for honing. But like Lynn says, that test is shaving.

Josh

Josh,

I agree that it seems easy to pass HHT on Norton 4K (maybe because the rougher micro-teeth are catching the hair better).

However, I almost always follow the Norton with Coticule, and I still get HHT. I will admit - sometimes the Coticule will lead to an edge failing to pass HHT. I attribute this to a poor stroke or something that I did not do right (e.g. slurry consistency). In these cases I go back to Norton 4K, get HHT again, and go up to Coticule paying more attention. Usually this fixes things.

Nevertheless, most importantly: I agree on the fundamental idea that test-shaving is what counts, not the subjective HHTs.

I will have to add, though: in my experience, I have never gotten a shave from a razor, which doesn't pass HHT (or passes it unconvincingly) that beats a shave by one of my favorites, which do pass HHT. I haven't tried an edge from you or Lynn - I might need to get some new toys to test But I do expect that both razors will pass HHT for me (it's just that I think my wife has great hair for HHTs, am I lucky or what

Cheers
Ivo