Thread: Stropping/HHT question...

Ok, so i just finished shaving with my new razor for the first time. (I did 3 passes. Mainly because im not too good at it yet. Took that many times to get all my whiskers.)

In case you havent seen any of my other posts, its as Dovo Prima Silver Steel. My question is about the HHT. After I was done, I tried the hanging hair test just for the heck of it. (I unfortunately didnt think to try it before...) My razor was honed by Lynn and it said i didnt need to strop before i shaved, so I didnt. Aside of me being a beginner, it was a good shave. I am going to spend more time with my preparation from here on out, but thats for a different thread...

Should I be able to slice a piece of hair from my wifes hair brush simply by pushing through it with my razor? If so, i cant do that. Not right now anyways. I realize it may be my stropping technique, but I really do feel like im getting better at it. I have been practicing on an older blade, which probably needs re-honing altogether. Obviously, I was never able to pass the HHT with that either. Should I be able to pass the HHT before I shave? If so, roughly how many laps do you think it would take on a new strop???

If Lynn honed it, and you got a good shave out of it, stop worrying about the HHT.

People differ in how much stropping they do between shaves. I find that ten laps after shaving (to dry the edge) and 40 laps before shaving, works _for me_.

The only way you'll find out what works _for you_ is to experiment with _your_ razor, strop, and technique.

If you can't get the HHT to work, and the razor still shaves nicely, you'll be in good company.

Charles

Since the shave was good I wouldn't worry too much about cutting hair out of your wife's hair brush. I usually do 50 linen followed by 50 leather. Some guys do 30/30 and various other combinations. Experiment with what works best for you. Stropping may or may not enable the HHT. Some hair seems to be more resistant to successful HHT than others. BTW, I have better luck if the root is held outboard. Has to do with the way the hair is constructed and it does make a difference. OTOH, the shave is the main thing. At least with me it is. YMMV.

Originally Posted by kurtismj

Should I be able to slice a piece of hair from my wifes hair brush simply by pushing through it with my razor?

The simple answer to that questions would be no, you shouldn't. The HHT test is one of those things all have heard about and very few know how to use correctly. It is also a very personal test, and one very much dependent upon the hair being used. To develop the HHT into something useful takes a lot of work and would require honing, HHT's and a lot of shaves. The test you should use for a correctly sharpened razor is the shave test - does the razor cut hair, and is it comfortable? If so, your razor is good.
Best of luck.

Cool. Thanks a lot for the quick replies! And to clarify, Im not so much worried or interested in cutting hair out of my wifes hair brush. I was just afraid that since I couldnt get it to do it after I did my post-shave strop, i may have accidently dulled the blade. I guess I was assuming that it was able to pass the HHT right out of the box from Lynn before i stropped. But ill never know since I didnt try it.

When asking this, I guess i was more concerned about the potential damage I may have done which would have affected my next shave. Im not as worried about it now. Just looking forward shaving again!

I use the HHT, but as a personally calibrated test when I'm honing.

If I have a razor that is popping hair coming off a honing session, then I know I'm in the ballpark for a shave test. If it's not popping, then a trip back to a stone is usually what needs to occur.

It's a test that requires a bit of experimentation IMO, and one that provides the honer with a ballpark figure. For instance, you may hone a razor and when it pops hair on an HHT, your personal experiences might dictate that you need to go back to do 25 more strokes on the 8K before you shave test. It would be a test that you have designed to work for you. Am I making sense....it's really early in the morning here.....

At the end of the day, it really is the shave test that matters. The proof is in the pudding.

Good luck!

The problem with the "shave test" is that it's not a test, it's a shave. When I shave. I'm not testing the blade's sharpness. I'm shaving with it. The shave is the ultimate goal, so logically it cannot function as a test of the blade's sharpness. It's the ultimate performance of the blade, but some testing (like a dress rehearsal) is helpful to know when the blade is ready for shaving. I can only shave so much. If you work on understanding the HHT, learn its complexities, and customize it to your own hair and usage, then it can tell you something.

If you want to explore the HHT, first of all forget about "popping" and cutting hair with it and instead try to use it to gradually gauge what effect your stropping (and later, honing) is having on the blade's sharpness.

Get some hairs from various parts of your body, like your arms, chest (I'll leave the rest to you), hairs of various thickness and stiffness. Then, as you strop and want to check your progress, hold your razor edge up and bring the hair downward into the blade slowly. Don't look so much for "popping" although you might see that. Look for the edge pulling on the hair, then tugging at it, then cutting a piece of it off. You can hold the hair close to its end or hold it half an inch or an inch away from the end. You can thus vary the force you are applying to the blade with the hair. As you see progress, you can then hold it farther from the end as the edge seems sharper.

Just remember that there really is no one HHT. It is a customizable method for gauging sharpness as you bring an edge to sharpness. It took me quite a bit of time, and some help from a member here, to find a way to make it of us in my honing and stropping. The way I perform it, and with my hair, it gives me an indication of when I have stropped enough. When my blade tugs the hair, then cuts off a piece (and based on my individual experience with the process), I know I have a blade I can shave with. That allows me to approach the shave as fun, not a matter of testing.

[QUOTE=ace;779259]The problem with the "shave test" is that it's not a test, it's a shave. QUOTE]

I understand what you're saying about shaving not being a test. However and logically, I'm not shaving my whole face with a blade that is coming off the hones. I'm shaving a small patch, maybe 3 square inches or less. In this way, it does function as a test. I'm using a small portion of my skin to determine if the blade has reached it ultimate smoothness. A shave is when I do my whole face.

I don't even worry about HHT. My type of hair, no matter how long or where it came from, will not pass a HHT, even with the sharpest of blades. The only way I can test is to actually lather up and shave.

I always wondered why I should hold the hair in the root side when performing HHT?
Isn´t the hair growing like a pine cone or palmtree with the "scales" growing upward?
The SRP Wiki says that you should hold the root side but many times I´ve read the opposite.
Is there any right or wrong here?