How's the edge holding up?

[Seraphim]

Been trying some experiments here at Seraphim Laboratories...


Here is a pic of a razor edge before, and after a shave. Includes pre-and post shave stropping on HA bridle leather strop. Edge was finished to 1um lapping film with some Cromox hanging stropping to finish it off.


EDIT:

Also added a pic of the edge after 4 shaves, with various strops used before/after shaving. It appears the edge is at about the same lavel as after a single shave.

[Seraphim]

So, from the above, it looked as if the stropping caused a fair bit of striations on the bevel, adn so it was unclear what may have been going on at the very edge due to the shave itself...

So, todays experiment was with a different razor, finished all the way out to 0.1um lapping film.

(I'm not usually a fan of finishing to this fine a level, I usually leave it at 1um, maybe with some cromeox too, as per raazor in post #1.)

I did not strop before, nor after the shave, to see what was going on due to whisker interaction alone....

before and after.

[JPM]

Interesting photos. Did you take a picture of the second one after stropping?

[mdunn]

would you mind, O wise Seraphim, to shave with that same blade you took to the 0.1um film without stropping untill it tugs and really wants a stropping, then do a before and after - so we can see what is a tuggy blade, and how well a good stropping fixes it up?

[bradyarz]

sorry if you've posted this before, but what magnification do you use?

[Seraphim]

sorry if you've posted this before, but what magnification do you use?

I'm estimating that is ~400x

[Seraphim]

would you mind, O wise Seraphim, to shave with that same blade you took to the 0.1um film without stropping untill it tugs and really wants a stropping, then do a before and after - so we can see what is a tuggy blade, and how well a good stropping fixes it up?

That's one idea.

Yet I don't think that's what I'll try next. Subjecting my face to harsh treatment is not what I signed up for!:001_smile

I'm going to give that razor a stropping tonight and see how it looks after that.

[spanx]

Question. What is 1um lapping film?

[The Knize]

i love it! thanks for posting!

[Seraphim]

Question. What is 1um lapping film?

Do a search for "lapping film" there's lots of threads about it. It's good stuff in my book.

[Rancor16]

very interesting

[thunderball]

Very cool thread and pics. :thumbup1:

[honed]

Thanks for posting this, this is interesting stuff!

[Seraphim]

So, here is that last edge after one shave, with no stropping, and then a look at it after stropping on a vintage horsehide shell strop.

[ajkimmins]

Amazing just how "bumpy" that edge gets!!! Fun to really see what happened after one shave!
Thank you.

[Seraphim]

Amazing just how "bumpy" that edge gets!!! Fun to really see what happened after one shave!
Thank you.

Just for the sake of clarity, these images are under very high magnification (estimated at ~400x), so it is unclear as of yet how important what we are seeing correlates to how the razor shaves (pretty darn good so far!).

I am working on a hypothesis that extreme refinement of the edge (ala 0.1um) leads to a less durable edge. I tend to like the feel of a 1um finish, with some chromeox. Perhaps that just feels the best for my skin? Perhaps it is because the edge doesn't get micro-dinged up like that 0.1um edge showed?

That'll be my next test run for tomorrow's shave. A before and after of a 1um finished edge, no stropping, like with the 0.1um to see how it does. Let's find out.

For a sense of scale, here is a shot of an edge with a hair across it, same magnification:

[Seraphim]

Touched up with cromox ~10 laps

[JPM]

Very interesting. It is noticeably smoother after the stropping, albeit at high magnification. I'm new to straights, I wonder if my edge looks better or worse after stropping. :scared:

[Bayamontate]

Amazin', unlike the Mets. Thanks for posting.

[ofelas]

That picture of the edge with the hair laying across it really put it into perspective; thanks!

[Seraphim]

It would appear that the 0.1um honing falls under the category of "putting too fine a point on it". I never really enjoyed the way the shave felt, and as can be seen in one of the posts above, the edge gets a bit micro-dinged during the shave, which may account for some of the harsh kind of feel I attribute to going too far with the super-high grits.

So, todays experiment--I took the same razor above, gave it some laps on the hanging cromox strop, and had at the ol' whiskers (48 hours' worth) again....no stropping before or after teh shave again this time.

There is little, to no degradation in the edge that I can discern. I will also say that the shave was even more close and comfortable than the previous 0.1um shave (although that was pretty nice too, just a *little* harsh).


Edge before and after pics:

[Seraphim]

This level of sharpness seems to be much more durable (BTW this is one of those razors that shall not be named that some will tell you has an inferior edge, and edge retention abilities.....:001_rolle)

Here's the edge after another shave (this time I also stropped before and after)

[Seraphim]

The above shot was after my Saturday evening shave.

Just finished up my Monday lunchtime shave at the gym.

Here's the edge after yet another shave. This time with 50 laps on the Dovo white pasted strop as well as shell horeshide before and after the shave. Edge looks and feels just about the same as the last two shaves.

Did I mention BBS?:wink2: