I've been experimenting. Recently I sent out a self honed razor for an evaluation from a mentor. He said then razor had a "perfect" bevel and a 12K edge. He spruced it up with a diamond paste progression. I've used the same razor the last two days. I normally define sharp as how the razor performs on the first pass. I now define how the razor performs on subsequent passes. Having compared a Feather SS Pro Guard edge with my edges, it is too close to call. I find the best way to judge are with the second or clean up pass. THoughts?
The way I judge whether my blade is sharp is by the comfort or lack of pull from that blade. As far as the second pass, I think it all depends on the grain of your beard. If you do your first pass WTG, even with an extremely sharp blade, you'll not get all the beard off because some of the hairs will lay down as you cut them. I find that a second or third pass each coming from a different direction may be required to get that BBS shave. That being said, I rarely shoot for a BBS shave anymore. A DFS is plenty close for me.
Oh. One other thing. The way I can tell that a blade is truly sharp is when I need to look at the pink lather on the blade to realize that I've cut myself!
It is the comfort, and no tugging, on the first pass, that is the tell for me. Especially if I havent shaved for a few days.
A well-honed edge means I don't need a second pass "Sharp is easy, Sharp and Smooth, takes a bit more talent" damn who was that smart good looking fellow that said that so many years ago
Lol!!! Well, if you don’t have much growth, I would have to agree Brother Glenn. That said, none of this is hard.
Sharp is easy, smooth is not. To me, I judge my edges in a month on shave 10 or two months on shave 20 while using only linen and leather. A few dozen shaves and the SR is still comfortable, then my stones, steel and my hands are dialed in
I just shaved with a freshly honed C-MON , and it was buttery smooth, both WTG and ATG. It was shaving like no whiskers were there(no tugging at all). But, the Extra Hollow blade was singing, the entire time. My face was smooth as silk, the first pass, but after the second pass, ATG, it was still buttery smooth, no tugging, and now BBS. That's my definition of Sharp, and Smooth shaving razor.
Tugging may be the wrong term to describe what I am trying to discuss. What I am referring to is the feeling that you are cutting hair when it's long and not that the edge is resisting.
If you have a 2 or 3-day growth and it feels like you are just squee-geeing the lather off on the first pass, then you have a sharp blade. If your blade is not so sharp and tugs at the hairs, then the edge is resisting. No? Also, a lot depends on the angle of the blade to the face. Holding the blade at too high an angle causes scraping instead of cutting and increases the chances of drawing blood.
It depends on how you define sharp. To me, it’s a ‘necessary and sufficient’ problem I suppose that once the bevels meet in a clean, uninterrupted line, you’re actually as sharp as you can get, at least geometry wise. Finer grits won’t make the bevels meet any better. This is the ‘necessary’ part. While the statement above may be geometrically true, a 1k grit set bevel will shave but not smoothly. A finer scratch pattern is needed to cut hair smoothly/without resistance. This is the ‘sufficient’ part, sufficient to make a smooth edge. The best edge will for me, cut hair without resistance WTG and ATG as @gssixgun and @Rkep01 mention. IOW, like shaving with a butterknife or squeeqee. I use a dry cleanup pass after WTG and ATG on my neck, then wipe the blade on a square of white tissue. The best edge will leave no stubble on the tissue - this assumes that I’ve done my part shaving of course. Next, no alcohol sting. The shave lasts a long time, no early stubble returning please. The conditions above really define how I grade stones too - a stone that will make an edge that does all of the above I grade as finer than one whose best edge can only do some of them. The razor, soap, etc have some influence here, but you’ll learn which stones will do it and which won’t fairly quickly.
There are many differing opinions on what constitutes sharper, for straight razors. The way i see it is that yes, when two sides of the bevel meet, and it is properly set, it is very sharp. Now, would you shave with that, coming off a 1-3k stone??? No, because it would tug, and be very uncomfortable. Reason being is the scratch pattern, on the edge. That is what we see, under limited magnification. When viewed under a high powered magnification, the edge will look jagged. Progressing along, to a higher grit, and polishing the bevel, takes these scratches off the bevel, which also removes more of the jagged edge, as viewed under high magnification. This can constitute as being sharper, and it is. The HHT will not always differentiate between a sharp 3k bevel, and a sharp 20k bevel, when honed properly. But, your face is sensitive, and will know, be it the tugging, or excessive stinging with aftershave. A sharp jagged edge will snag and pop hairs, about like a sharp smooth edge. But not the same root in and root out. The reason being the hair structure is overlapping, like tiles on a roof. Doing the HHT, root in, is always easier than root out. A sharper edge will easily cut the hair, both ways. That should clear up the technical portion of the debate. ..
Let's really get down to it... The edge starts cutting hair at about .50~ Microns, the sharpest SR edge found in the Voerhaven report is .32~Microns, The sharpest edge found on a DE was .31~Microns So the idea that is is all about how "sharp" (literally the width of the edge) the edge is pretty much is laughable... ie: "Sharp is easy, Sharp and Smooth takes a little talent" Now add in the actual Hair of the beard, the ability of the shaver to properly prep, the experience of the shaver to use advanced blade handling techniques, actually having mapped one's beard growth and that .18~Microns becomes even less important in the overall picture...
