Wow! HHT passed on two razors!

[Occam]

Hi gents,

Having the Friday afternoon free I came home to finally sit down and give the hones and my razors the attention they need. Yesterday I had experimented a bit more and got my NOS razors up to back of the hand shaving sharp but they failed the HHT with thick or thin hair.

I got the eBay razor again and taped up its spine.

On the DMT 325 I gave it a really good going over till I could see the entire bevel with a new scratch pattern. A slight smile in the blade required an imperceptible rocking to get the whole blade. I hit it with about 30-50 passes. I'm not good at counting when concentrating on the task at hand.

I left the tape as it was wearing a bit and I'd been cleaning the hone every 5 strokes or so to keep it flat and debris free.

Then on to the DMT 1200 I honed for 5-10 strokes and removed the tape. Then it got another 20-30 strokes till the entire bevel looked even.

Then onto the Spyderco UF unlapped side for about 20 strokes progressively lightening. Then the lapped side for about 20 very light strokes.

Result: HHT PASSED!!! I basically sliced to pieces over and over one of my wife's hairs on different parts of the blade. I was beyond excitement.

I was so excited I immediately stropped on the Illinois 827 and did a test shave... wow... my right cheek despite having a great shave in the AM was BBS with only two with the grain passes from the straight razor!! To say I was dumbfounded was an understatement. I was hooked and did my neck too... no irritation and a very nice shave!

I repeated the result on the Bartmann which was a little hesitant at the HHT but passed it a few times too. More importantly the Bartmann was like a lightsaber on the back of the hand hairs. They dropped at the slightest touch. Previous tests had required me to go fairly close to the base of the hairs to shave them. Now I could just pass the razor over the shafts of the hair and have hairs popping off irresistably.

I reserved the Bartmann for my first full straight shave on the weekend.


I think one of the secrets of my success was that I changed the direction of honing. I found going side to side very awkward sometimes creating problems with angling and rolling. I solved that by orienting the hones perpendicular to me and using an away and towards action, holding the toe of the blade with my thumb and forefinger of my left hand.

I can't believe I've achieved this with such ease. I was honestly completely convinced that this would take months of frustration. I can't believe how smooth my cheek is with just with the grain passes... amazing.

[Occam]

Well make that three razors...


After dinner, I put in another 15 minutes into the Crown & Sword 6/8 and again after the DMT 325, 1200, Spyderco UF unlapped, lapped... HHT passes with flying colours...

Wow... this progression seems so reliable it's not just like money in the bank. It's like money in the bank vault...

Awesome.

[ZiggyDeath]

True test is shaving with it. With my hair, no razors can pass the HHT. The HHT just gives you a general reference point saying that it's sharp, not that it'd necessarily give you a nice smooth shave.

[Occam]

Holy moly......

I've been reading up old barber texts and other sources of proper stropping technique... and decided that I'd try out some of the recommendations... the main take home message was to use a fast drawing stroke...

Now what I'd been doing up to now was using slow even pressured strokes and finding for the most part that the HHT was harder to pass after stropping in general.

Tonight I brought the razor up to my prepped Illinois 827 and took a fast whizzing light even stroke that created a beautiful zipping sound... and turned the blade without hurrying and again a fast drawing stroke...

The speed of the laps was not important. I took my time in positioning the razor etc. It was the stroke itself that I concentrated the speed on.

After 50 strokes just on leather I tried the HHT... and blow me... the razor had no catch and cut but rather any hair that fell to the blade was cut with a a very keen and satisfying swishing sound. Much much better than off the hone... I think this is a combination of a nice blade being set now as well as this improved stropping technique.

I think slow strokes have been really bringing me down here... even though I'm still stropping slowly in terms of frequency of laps the actual strokes are being done very fast with a nice zipping draw and I think this is a crucial element of good stropping technique...

Comments are welcome.

The HHT is so awesome I want to videotape it... I've watched the existing ones on youtube and none are a patch on the results I am getting. Simply mind blowing sharpness. Dicing up a long hair stroke after stroke