What Straight Razor Have You Honed Lately????

Nice blades. You dont need fancy stones, but its fun to use them, and some do work really well. There is just a bigger learning curve, while using them. But, when honing razors, it's all about the end result, not what you used to get there.

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As for the HHT(Hanging Hair Test), it is subjective, and only used as a partial indicator of the sharpness, and shavability, of your blade.
To use the HHT, before your finishing stone is worthless, in my opinion, because the blade will grab the hair, and cut it. But when viewed, under magnification, the edge is jagged. The jagged edge will grab hair, and cut, but when trying to shave with this edge, it will be horrible.
It is when you have finished with the final finishing stones, and the edge is stropped and polished, that the HHT is indicative of the sharpness.
But, the HHT doesn't translate into a smooth shave.
As for a chart, I dont have one. But, at times I do achieve HHT-CN(Chuck Norris). This is the ultimate HHT. The Uber Sharp blade just looks at the offending hajr, the hair becomes terrified, and splits in two. No contact made.

 

Thanks Dalton! I’ll have to give a shot again.

Shave test went ok this morning. 2 of the 3 were very good, one was “meh”. The Herold Bro’s has a stabilizer in the heel and I knew when honing it yesterday that it was more difficult and was giving me some trouble. So back to the stones it goes! All in all, at this stage in my learning, I’ll happily take 2 of 3.


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Here’s a piece that I posted over on the Nook for my pal Matt. I suppose it’s OK since it is my post, lol.

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Pros:
- the single job of a SR is to cut hair, so cutting hair is a good test
- you can, and should, test every mm of an edge whether your learning or a pro - testing very short sections is difficult with other tests
- the test is different root in from root out. This difference can tell you about sharpness. Hair is more difficult to cut root in.
- with a good loupe, the HHT test can take you from bevel set to finish, no other tests needed unless you just want to, and learning other tests is good

Cons:
- hair from different heads is different, even from different places on the same head. Hair extensions are a good source of consistent hair
- it’s difficult if not impossible to really compare sharpness between different types of stones, jnat vs synth, coticule vs thuri, etc
- like all tests, you have to practice, observe, and learn

I use HHT to determine bevel set and the fineness of the final edge.

In determining bevel set, I usually use a loupe until I can no longer see any edge artifacts, no shiney lines, sparkly thingys, and the edge itself is straight and even, and the scratch pattern is uniform toe, middle, and heel. Then after 4k or 5k, I strop 10 canvas/20 leather on a Kanoyama strop, but any strop will do fine. The edge should easily pass HHT along every mm of the edge. If it does, I’m 5-10 minutes away from a perfect edge. Stropping between grits, especially the first time that you hone a razor, brings up a little polish and helps you see stuff with the loupe.

The finished edge, after stropping should return silent HHT root in or out. But often it doesn’t. For example if you haven’t hit the heel and or toe as well as the middle, and the loupe will show coarser scratches there compared to the middle. Sometimes a razor will have a little frown or overgrind (sometimes just on one side) that’s difficult to see but the HHT has no problem identifying part of the edge that isn’t as sharp as the rest of it. Sometimes steel, especially vintage steel, can’t hold an edge from very fine finishers, and the HHT will get worse as you get above say 12k or using an extremely fine jnat. It doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen. If it does, try a layer of tape to increase the bevel angle a little.

Tips
- humidity makes a difference. When my test hair dries out in winter, nothing will pass HHT until I humidify it a little. You can also pass the hair between damp fingertips before testing. Coticule.be recommends this
- the old coticule.be site has some good info on HHT worth reading
- sometimes any given single hair won’t cut, it’s damaged or something, IDK. If your edge that should cut hair doesn’t, the first thing to do is try another hair!
- use hair that’s clean, undyed, and unconditioned
- use dark hair - I use a piece of paper as a background to see how the hair performs at the edge, and most paper is white, blonde or light hair is a lot more difficult to see
- how the hair behaves when it touches the edge is worth noting, if it catches and cuts silently with no effort, you’re there. If you have to work it, you’re not
- on very hollow razors, sometimes the hair will ‘ping’ as it cuts, Filarmonicas can exhibit this. If it pings, you can do better. If you can get silent HHT root in or out on a full hollow razor, the razor is holding the edge and you’ve done a good job honing it

 

Nice write up, thanks for sharing!

 

There is an old saying my manager used to like to say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing(s) and expecting different results. What you may need is to change things up a bit.

 

Thanks! That’s super helpful.


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There he goes again.

 

While I generally agree with that (and say the same thing to my team at work all the time!), I think when you’re learning a new skill (as I am) repetition and practice are crucial. I have a bad habit of jumping from idea to idea looking for the “next best thing”. I’m determined to get good edges from this method before moving onto the next (though I may put a razor aside from time to time if I get stuck).

In this case, I talked with @speedster and sent him a picture of the razor. He pointed out that the heel was bad (worse than I thought), so I spent some time reprofiling the heel on an Atoma 400. I then reset the bevel and went back through the progression. It’s now passing HHT (though not Chuck Norris style). A couple hundred laps on a strop and I’ll give it. A shot tomorrow. Fingers crossed!


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Taking the W&B to the stones...
Bevel set on the Suehiro 1k, then a couple rounds of fresh slurry on a Coticule, then a finish of water only on this “extra extra fine” bout.

Happy honing.
Tom

 

Hardware store razor out of Buffalo, NY... Wallbridge & Co.

Feels very Sheffield like, so since the Coticules were out, figured I would keep going.

This is the workhorse for the two razors, after the bevel set and before the finish. Very hard and dense - slurry stone provides the slurry.
Happy honing.
Tom

 

If you are convinced you are on the method that will produce the best results, I agree. New honers jump into stones because it is what the experts use. The variety of stones is wide and learning to use them is best left to those who consider it a hobby. For those just wanting a fantastic shave, there are other processes that will most likely work better in the short term, then deciding later to add in a stone or two, or jumping to pastes and such.

All I am saying is, consider all of your options. An alternative might produce a better result.

 

Drives you crazy doesn't it.

 

That is a short ride for some of us.

 

Nice job Tom. Looks great.

 

Thanks Scott. The shave was excellent... pretty happy everything came together.

 

So I honed up two more razors yesterday. Both were Genco’s: one a Henry X and one a Gold Seal. I shave tested both this morning and both were sharp, but not very smooth. No tugging or anything but just felt a little “harsh” Again both more or less failed HHT...

I marked both bevels with Sharpie before using a Chosera 1k. Both bit well all along the edge using TNT (after TNT I ran each for a couple passes to remove any impact from the thumb nail). I thank TSN them through 3k, 5k, 8k, 10k and 12k. I used a loop at each stage to be sure the scratch pattern was uniform.

Beyond more practice, I’m wondering what else I could/should be doing. Obviously Naniwa 8k, 10k, and 12k are capable stones, so I think I can safely rule out any issue there. I lap them flat before each use (5-7 figure eights with an Atoma 400). Each spine gets 1 layer of Scotch Super 33+ tape. I use a little slurry at the beginning of each stone and then dilute to just water by the end (I actually have no idea if slurry helps on a synthetic stone).

At this point I’ve got 5 potential theories:
1) I’m using too much pressure - I’m still very new at this and the balance between control vs light pressure is a learning process.
2) my stropping technique isn’t good - I don’t think this is the problem, as my razors honed by someone else are good on subsequent shaves and I think I’d see issues here if i sucked at stropping. But I do strop 2-3x as much after honing.
3) I’m not spending enough time/laps on each stone - again, I don’t think this is the problem as the scratch pattern is pretty uniform before I move onto the next stone.
4) I’m overhoning - I throw this out there because I’ve read it’s possible, but I have idea how to check for that or if it’s even possible on a synthetic
5) I just don’t like a Naniwa 12k edge. Maybe I should stop at 10k. Or maybe I should buy a Nakayama

To me, 1 seems most likely and that’s where I’ll focus my efforts/attention on the next go round, but I’m very open to ideas right now.

The good news is both shaved and shaved pretty well. Not quite a BBS, but close enough for government work. The better news is I have an excuse to hone some more!



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I’d guess #1 also.

Try lightening up to the lightest pressure that you can manage and still control the razor, especially final finishing. If this doesn’t work you can try more pressure.

You can test this, sort of. Hone a razor up through 12k at normal pressure, and check that the scratch pattern is uniform out to the edge. Now make 30-40 strokes at the lightest pressure that you can manage per above. Now check the bevel and see if there’s a different scratch pattern at the bevel. If there is, you have a clue. Strop and shave.

 

Like said. Lighten up on the pressure, and take your time.

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Thanks Scott and Steve. I will give that a shot my next go around. Probably won’t get a chance until this weekend, but I’ll report back. Somehow, despite the Frustration, this is all very addicting


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