Just got my first Freehand Hair popping edge!

M

MikeB18

Joined
May 5, 2013
Messages
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I used a cheap Smiths tri-hone arkansas stone system and got my Ontario RAT model 1 to be able to shave :) Not 100% perfect uniformity but working on it.
 
I have heard of hair popping sharp knives but I have NEVER seen one in person nor have I been able to attain that level of sharpness even with an edgepro. I can get some really nice polished edges that shave with ease but never where the actual hair pops just by touching the blade to the edge of the hair. Maybe i just have better hair conditioning products than most men. Or I just suck at sharpening.
 
I got a wet stone, 1000 and 8000 grit, and I accomplished shaving sharpness on all my knives....I now have no hair on my arms.
 
PURPLEDC said:
I have heard of hair popping sharp knives but I have NEVER seen one in person nor have I been able to attain that level of sharpness even with an edgepro. I can get some really nice polished edges that shave with ease but never where the actual hair pops just by touching the blade to the edge of the hair. Maybe i just have better hair conditioning products than most men. Or I just suck at sharpening.
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It is more of a fluke, I am not very good at sharpening yet I just was able to get the straight portion of the edge of the RAT strangely sharp. I sharpened a few other knives tonight and was unsuccessful at even getting close to as sharp as that edge is, couldn't even shave with some ones. Have to work on keeping the right angle and some better stones couldn't hurt.

Just proud of my fluke, now only if I can get it that sharp to the tip and keep it uniform then I will be in business.
 
cogratz , its something to be proud of

a word of caution tho ... once you get the knack of it .. its kinda impossible to leave your knife at useable sharp .. it has to be razor sharp always .. and then not just the folder in pocket but the kitchen knives ,the machetes .. everything bladed has to shave ..
 
I never put too much effort into sharpening until a friend asked if I could get his skyline sharp enough to cut a thin arm hair. Decided I was going to get that thing really damn sharp. Asked him which hair it was, gave it a light touch with the blade and we just saw it pop right off. That's when I realized people were serious when they say hair popping sharp; I always assumed it was another expression for hair shaving sharp.
 
My Rat 1 was my sharpest knife out of the box. It glided right through arm hair with no effort at all. Popped off like it was late for a date. Para 2 was my next sharpest. It kind of half pulled half popped arm hair. I've been free handing as well the last month or so and I've been hit or miss. One session ill get something shaving the next not do much. I do feel that I get a more consistent angle working on a flat stone and then sharpmaker rods than using the sharpmaker vertically as designed. Just my preference.
 
No point lying about it. Knife steel is the biggest factor. Getting my vg-10 delica to split hair at 15 deg per side is far easier than with my zdp 189 endura at 10 deg. But the endura always comes out sharper in the end, so there.
 
PURPLEDC said:
Maybe i just have better hair conditioning products than most men.
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If it helps, I think this actually does make a big difference! When I really want to test an edge, I like to whittle my girlfriend's hair. My hair is much coarser than hers, that silky smooth hair is really a pain to whittle but gives substantial satisfaction. Even those edges would be like butter knives compared to what some people here can produce.
 
Whittling, shaving, popping, etc. of hair can be easy for some hair and difficult for other.
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Back when I was using some kind of prescription shampoo to deal with my dandruff,
my hair became thin and dry and I could easily pop hair with any decent edge.
Further, there was a distinct difference in HHT (hanging hair test) between
root-in vs root-out.

After I stopped using the shampoo, and started using hair conditioner and whatnot,
my hair got very thick and smooth, and I need to work on the edge a bit more to get it to pop hair.
I also noticed that root-in vs root-out became slightly less important.
I think SEM picture shows possible reason for the variance in hair popping ability and directionality.
 
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