Do you think is possible to go from HHT3 to HHT5 with just a balsa strop cover in crox and them some leather stroping?
From HHT3 to HHT5
- Thread starter jccalabria
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If your bevel is well honed then I think it's possible.
I have yet to get HHT5...but its something I strive for! 
Possible yes.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Personally, I doubt it. CrOx has a nominal rating of .5u but particle size varies wildly. .5u polycrystalline diamond is much more stable and much more consistent, so even at the same grit, diamond has an advantage. Poly diamond at .25u is the bee's knees. I use it for maintenance stropping and I basically never have to re-hone, unless I just want to.
If you really want HHT5, you need to get HHT5 before the balsa. Try a film progression through .3u without damp paper. Then a progression of diamond pasted balsa. Sand your balsa down nice and flat first. A sheet of 1k sandpaper stuck to a 12x12 polished marble tile with loctite spray adhesive will lap your balsa nicely. The paper will load up so a sheet of paper for each side of balsa you do. Start with .25u than work up to the finest grit you can find. Label your balsas and don't mix grits! You may not notice any improvement after .05u, I don't know. Light pressure only. You should have a good chance at achieving HHT5. For best chance of this, you want a razor with a fairly small bevel angle, like around 15 degrees, and steel that will support such a bevel honed finely.
By my measurement, HHT5 is very very rare. If the hair moves, I don't call it HHT5. I cut at least 1/2" from my fingers.
There are more important things in an edge than pure cutting ability. The shave is the real test. If it cuts hair and doesn't aggressively cut face, if it glides smoothly and doesn't leave you raw, it is a good edge. Pure sharpness is a goal of academic interest only, I would hope.
If you really want HHT5, you need to get HHT5 before the balsa. Try a film progression through .3u without damp paper. Then a progression of diamond pasted balsa. Sand your balsa down nice and flat first. A sheet of 1k sandpaper stuck to a 12x12 polished marble tile with loctite spray adhesive will lap your balsa nicely. The paper will load up so a sheet of paper for each side of balsa you do. Start with .25u than work up to the finest grit you can find. Label your balsas and don't mix grits! You may not notice any improvement after .05u, I don't know. Light pressure only. You should have a good chance at achieving HHT5. For best chance of this, you want a razor with a fairly small bevel angle, like around 15 degrees, and steel that will support such a bevel honed finely.
By my measurement, HHT5 is very very rare. If the hair moves, I don't call it HHT5. I cut at least 1/2" from my fingers.
There are more important things in an edge than pure cutting ability. The shave is the real test. If it cuts hair and doesn't aggressively cut face, if it glides smoothly and doesn't leave you raw, it is a good edge. Pure sharpness is a goal of academic interest only, I would hope.
someday I hope to see HHT5 in person.
- Thread starter
- #7
Thanks a lot Slash for that seminar lol, well my razor is in catch and pop so I have the understanding that this is HHT3, in the zones where my beard is thicker my razor doesn't glide like I want to, so I think that I have to go up on my edge maybe HHT4 it suit me well, again thanks for the knowledge share.
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- #9
Nice vid doc, by the way the crox that I have is from whipped dog is .3 and the iron ox is .1 do you have ever try to put the iron ox on the back of the poorman strop?
I go from a HHT1 ( violin) of my coti to a HHT4 after stropping on canvas and leather ( both unpasted). So yes. Definitely possible!
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- #11
Hey Thomas how many laps?
Where do you get those hairs Al? I've tried with my wife's and way too thin, laughs at my razors. I need a thick hair like in your vid. Can you buy something? I thought I saw in a Gary Haywood vid. that he used something like fine steel wool.
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I've told Doc he could make some serious cash selling the hairs he uses for his HHTs. Regardless, his edges are the best I've tried-really marvelous.
After honing I normally do like 50 laps on canvas and 100 on leather. The HHT improvement can be seen with much less though.
Steel wool on a shave ready edge? My goodness!
HHT varies a lot with the hair, so my HHT1 might be your HHT3. If you are doing it just for grins diamond and CBN on balsa will get an edge wickedly sharp, but not necessarily a nice shaving edge.
In the beginning, I worried about "HHT 1-5." At the end, I worried about "a good-shave." Where that falls on the sharpness scale, I don't know 
It should still pass with thin hairs. I can get similar results with my 3 year olds thin hair
True, but I think the wife wont like that.
Thank you-glad you enjoy them
no I don't use steel wool. I have several bags of hair ranging from medium to baby fine hair ..i'll use the nedium hair of the coticule and I can get a 3 hht to even 4 sometimes then after stroping i'll get a 4 plus easily with baby blonde fine hair ... I tried hht after crox cbn sprays and I get no improvement so of the coticule it is for me with a nice 4 hht shave never fails me .. i'd do a video on that but the fine hair I use is pretty invisible on camera..gary
I go from HHT failing to HHT-5 Tip out (far, far, FAR harder to pass than root out) via just stropping (On plain leather). Every time I see people getting HHT3-5 prestropping off stones like Coticules, I wonder just how brittle/thick their hair must be. I can barely do that on my body hair which is several times thicker than my head hair.
