Blade sharpness test
- Thread starter Filudo
- Start date
So? what scale is sharpness measured in?
30 widths of a bees anatomy vs 90 widths of a bees anatomy = not much?
30 light year vs 90 light years is a big difference?
30 widths of a bees anatomy vs 90 widths of a bees anatomy = not much?
30 light year vs 90 light years is a big difference?
I believe it is the grams of weight applied via the blade in order to cut the test medium
It's interesting, but it doesn't tell me anything. I believe his results could be accurate for his procedure, but it doesn't in any way approximate my shaving stroke. It doesn't tell me how it feels on my face. It doesn't tell me anything about blade longevity. I think it's fun to look at magnified edges and chopping sharpness tests, but the only thing I trust is putting the blade in my razor and finding my own experience.
Jay21
Collecting wife bonus parts
I applaud the effort. Although I'm not sure how that machine actually works, it seems likely that the human pushing the blade through whatever medium that is will have some sort of effect. There would need to be a machine that applies the same amount of force for every test. There's no way the Derby Extra is sharper than many of those other blades.
This test flies in the face of other tests that have been done and the collective wisdom of users. I have to question his using clothes pins to clamp the blades as that could allow movement. Voshkod are great blades but they are not as sharp as a Feather and are a good blade to use to tone down a harsh or aggressive razor. That is one example and there are many.
I think Refined Edge did it better.
Jay21
Collecting wife bonus parts
Agree. They did.
+1! So many variables!! My beard, my skin, etc. Plus the BIG one (in my opinion) how many shaves!
For me blades are the most YMMV aspect of ‘traditional’ wet shaving!!
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
Great simple test and it tells what the edge sharpness from new . A good test would be test factory edge new and then do a 2nd test after a shave. Strange they hardly used any Gillette blades that make some of the best shaving blades IMO.
I don't believe this test, it's not reliable.
I didn't want to dump on his effort so I held off to see if anybody else wanted to comment. So, I almost bought one these machines last year. They come in three, I think, versions depending on the accuracy desired. The first thing that stood out to me yesterday was the 5 gram increments, I believe that's indicative of being the least accurate model. Might be the middle level one. The problem here is obvious: it is going to round up or down randomly. Even with multiple tests, they aren't going to make the results more accurate. Interestingly, a few of the sharper results are close to being accurate.
What he is testing here is a Facon, it's a Chinese blade with "Japanese steel." It's possible that they are around the sharpness he got, but his result for the Feathers is garbage data so somebody would have to try them both. Still, a fresh Feather remains the only known blade to be at peak sharpness out of the wrapper.
lasta
Blade Biter
Ive never seen a Facon! Any idea where to get those? You know, for days when Feathers just don't cut it.
I felt like my post above was too lazy even as I hit post. I went back and looked and this is the mid level tester "professional." The other thing about this one compared to the "industrial" is the number of reading per second is only 10 vs 25, that should make more of difference than the rounding errors. If it rounds a Feather to 35 and a Platinum something to 40, that's useful data... if it can be repeated. For everybody asking, this is a BESS certified scale with an apparatus instead of a platform basically. The knife pivot off to the side is isolated from the load cell. I believe these need to be calibrated like any scale before use too...
So here's the thing; the reason I didn't buy one of these, actually there are several, is because one has to devise a test jig like the guy at refinedshave did. He has a long post explaining the problems with making this tester work with razor blades. I have disagreements with his methodology, part of the reason I wanted one, but unless I buy one I can't be certain I can do any better. I have some ideas how to make it more like how we actually shave, but the machine may not accommodate that and it would be a wasted $300.
The other issues aren't relevant and are theoretical. Sharpness is directly related to the angle of the final bevel, but this doesn't tell you anything but the resistance to cutting a wire. The mechanics of severing a human hair are more involved and as others have pointed out, the coating schedule may play a larger role than ultimate sharpness. The studies Gillette did before releasing their first Platinum coated blade led them to making them less sharp than the Spoilers and less sharp than the competitors. I don't know where my bookmark is for this information, but they stressed that getting the coating right meant they didn't have to make them as sharp because beyond a certain level a subject couldn't accurately guess whether one blade was sharper than another. I have used all of the blades from this period and my experience leads me to believe that they were right which would mean that all of this objective data is useless. I now prefer to compare a blade to other well known blades, YMMV is assumed since this is more subjective.
So here's the thing; the reason I didn't buy one of these, actually there are several, is because one has to devise a test jig like the guy at refinedshave did. He has a long post explaining the problems with making this tester work with razor blades. I have disagreements with his methodology, part of the reason I wanted one, but unless I buy one I can't be certain I can do any better. I have some ideas how to make it more like how we actually shave, but the machine may not accommodate that and it would be a wasted $300.
The other issues aren't relevant and are theoretical. Sharpness is directly related to the angle of the final bevel, but this doesn't tell you anything but the resistance to cutting a wire. The mechanics of severing a human hair are more involved and as others have pointed out, the coating schedule may play a larger role than ultimate sharpness. The studies Gillette did before releasing their first Platinum coated blade led them to making them less sharp than the Spoilers and less sharp than the competitors. I don't know where my bookmark is for this information, but they stressed that getting the coating right meant they didn't have to make them as sharp because beyond a certain level a subject couldn't accurately guess whether one blade was sharper than another. I have used all of the blades from this period and my experience leads me to believe that they were right which would mean that all of this objective data is useless. I now prefer to compare a blade to other well known blades, YMMV is assumed since this is more subjective.
They are on Amazon, I think it would be pointless to link considering your location!
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