Thread: The Grand Experiment

Very interesting indeed, those of us who did not actively respond and reply would like to say thank you as well. I would not have had the "where with all" you displayed to even conduct such an experiement, let alone watch my shaves suffer. So if I understand: ???

Stropping after shaving is not recommended or produced little benefit

The number of shaves between honings is about 30, best case

60 passes before a shave is considered optimal instead of 30

Did I capture that correctly? I'm not sure I understand the comment "thats not probative"

And again thanx for your efforts. . .

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Stropping after shaving is not recommended or produced little benefit

Quite the oposite.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The number of shaves between honings is about 30, best case

20 in this case.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

60 passes before a shave is considered optimal instead of 30

The 60 passes better than 30 theory is the most conjectural and ALL our findings can only produce assumption at best.

I think that to draw any real concrete conclusions here this thing would have to be replicated by people using different razors and different beard types. The real problem is that even if you had three razors exactly the same in age, brand and condition you don't know that the quality is exactly the same as far as end result in shave quality. Even if they are honed exactly the same I think that small differences in the original grinding could cause differences in the result and I don't know how you could reconcile that fact, probably only by duplicating this thing over and over again. But we'll see what happens in phase 2.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think that to draw any real concrete conclusions here this thing would have to be replicated by people using different razors and different beard types. The real problem is that even if you had three razors exactly the same in age, brand and condition you don't know that the quality is exactly the same as far as end result in shave quality. Even if they are honed exactly the same I think that small differences in the original grinding could cause differences in the result and I don't know how you could reconcile that fact, probably only by duplicating this thing over and over again. But we'll see what happens in phase 2.

As I stated somewhere early in this post, to get really acurate results, you must get razors from the same batch of steel (same alloy), and heat treat and temper them together in the same pool, preferably one next to the other. Grind type doesent matter...

Nenad

Originally Posted by superfly

As I stated somewhere early in this post, to get really acurate results, you must get razors from the same batch of steel ...

I would add swapping the action performed on each razor for phase two to look for negative results coming from a particular razor rather than the treatment, and considering using other brands for future verifiers.

X

So how do you know if they came from the same batch of steel unless you know the guys who forged them. My SRP 38 and 39 we would assume were numbered sequentally because they were produced together and from the same batch of steel but we really don't know that. As I said some time ago with the SRP Razors how were they numbered? Was it done strictly as they came off production or were they all thrown into a box and sent off for lazer engraving and as they came out of the box they were numbered. We don't know. I will tell you that SRP 38 and 39 out of the box were two of the most two dissimilar shavers I have ever encountered. It took me minutes to hone 39 but literally hours to hone 38.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

So how do you know if they came from the same batch of steel unless you know the guys who forged them.

Exactly, you dont... But, nevertheless, I think that your experiment is very close to acuracy (we are not making rocket science here, huh ), and as I sad, I might try that myself with two 6/8 DOVO's that I have, which, both honed sharp, are very similar shavers, but purchased from different stores, and who knows how long were they sitting in the warehouse... Keep up the good work...

Nenad

Xman, thanx for the clarification, I didn't think I got that right. Could you use the EXACT same razor now? First one way, then another, and simply conjecture about the number of shaves before pulling? You can be certain that the exact same razor uses the same metal. Since stropping after words is described in most manuals as bad for the strop and they don't mention the effects on the razor I'm curious why the strop was changed mid test? Has it's abilities diminished? I am also wondering about all the discussions of cleaning the razor with the strop. Would it make any sense to use the linen side for this instead of the leather? This seems to work very well for me, that is stropping afterwards on linen. This also protects my very valuable strop.

Again, thanx these experiments are great reading.

The only reason the strop was changed mid stream was because after getting the new strop I was very impressed with it and it seemed to do a good job. I really don't think that had any real effect on the outcome though. All three razors got equal treatment with both the old and new strop.The new strop had a harder surface as opposed to the DD which was a softer finish.