Well, Well, Well...it is amazing how much a difference a sharp blade makes!!

[Sluggo]

I spent last night with my new friend, a CrOx balsa strop from Rayman. About 20 laps later, and 60 on the leather I had a straight that still would not pass the HHT.

I thought it needed to be rehoned, but I decided to try it anyways this morning. I lathered with a little AOS Lemon, and went to work. The blade was much, much sharper. And with my same routine I got a 90% BBS!!

I also roughed up my home made strop, and got the draw just about where I like it...things are looking real good!!

 

[mainaman]

Told ya HHT is not very meaningful, the real test is the shave test.

 

[JPM]

Congrats! I might pick one of those up from Ray-man also.

 

[Chimensch]

Told ya HHT is not very meaningful, the real test is the shave test.

+1 I get great shaves and have never been able to get the HHT to work.

 

[SliceOfLife]

HHT at least for me won't pass (well) off my 4k King or my swaty's Or my Mueller or my China, or Trans ark.

It is no trouble at all off my Coti, Thuri, Escher or Jnat... requires some major stropping though.

Kind of makes me suspect that Coti grit is seriously underestimated (people say it's 8k) and that HHT becomes useful ~12k+

At least in my experience.


Also, I find "pop" results totally worthless. I can pop HH's at 1k.

Oh, and I didn't use ChromOx for very long, but when I did use it, it never seemed to help pass the HHT. In other words, 4k King or Swaty to Chromox to strop didn't pass any better than just going from the hone to the strop.


The only other variable I've really changed is my use of the linen strop. I did maybe 10 passes on it back when I was still finishing on swaty's. Now I tend to do 25-35 and then 50-60 leather (vs maybe 25-40 leather back then).

But I will vouch that Rayman's Balsa strop's are good quality. IMHO the time I saved not making one was easily worth what he charges. And if I had made it, it wouldn't have those nice felt feet on it.

 

[DogHair]

Strangely I can get excellent shaves off blades that won't pass the HHT but I never get bad shaves of ones that do. It works like this for me:

Not Passing HHT = Good
Passing HHT > Good

Any I don't even like math!

 

[professorchaos]

Whether or not a razor will pass the hanging hair test has a lot to do with the abrasive used to sharpen it. Often razors finished on CrOx won't pass the test but shave well. Short of shaving with a razor, the best test is the thumb pad test - if a razor feels sticky, chances are very good it will shave well.

 

[Dave_D]

None of my straights can pass the hht but shave very smooth, that Rayman hone is a great buy.