Question for WadeF - re:hair splitting

B

Bucktool_02

Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
144
WadeF,

Back when you were able to split a single strand of hair in half with your sharpened and stroped BM710, were you able to do it by holding the hair between your finger and thumb (free hanging)?

So far I've only been able to split hair with the strand laying flat on the table. Somtimes I'm able to carve slices out of the hair, like peeling a carrot. But no matter what, I can only do it while the hair is laying flat on the table.

Thanks.
 
moving-van.jpg
 
Being able to whittle hair isn't overly sharp depending on the hair of course, it is similar to being able to cut rope. A half inch thick of poly is pretty different from a 1/8" piece of cotton.

-Cliff
 
Is this thread in jest ?
What human has hair strong enough to not bend when you try to split it ?
What are ya , one of these ?
1970_cro_magnon.jpg
 
If the edge is sharp enough it will bite in and cut through the hair, no different than the ability to shave. Tai Goo was the first to discuss hair whittling as a measure of sharpness that I noted on the forums, he had a bunch of pictures. Fikes discussed it as well.

-Cliff
 
LOL @ the ogre pic.

Thanks, Cliff. Until now I didn't consider that every hair might behave differently. I must now go find the head of an infant.
 
There are massive differences from one person to the next. I have some friends whose arm hair is as coarse as my beard.

-Cliff
 
I have some friends whose arm hair is as coarse as my beard.
Click to expand...

I wasnt trying to joke or insult anyone there , I'm a hairy bastid as well.
I just cant see how one could whittle something as fine as human hair.
 
My Spyderco Manix did this to one of my moustache hairs:

2005_0723Moth_Manix_etc0064.jpg


The hair was free-hanging, held between my fingers.

The edge was factory, though stropped by me on a belt loaded with Solvol Autosol.

maximus otter
 
Holy cow, maximus! I didn't think it was possible free-hanging. I guess there's another level of sharp I'll have to be learning how to attain.

Or maybe I should be trying to do this using your hair?
 
Any chance we can get a groupbuy going on maximus otter beard whiskers?
 
I actually split one of my hairs 3 ways. First in half, then one of the halves in half. I just held the hair between my thumb and index finger and kind of pulled it across the edge. The knife would bite and slice the hair.

I'll see if the image is still online for me to link to:

hairsplit.jpg


Ther eit is. You can see where the hair was first cut in half, at the Y, and then you can see the one half split again.
 
Hair has grain. You can "walk" it through you're thumb and forefinger in one direction. Try it again in the other direction and it won't move.

The point is to find the grain and cut against it. This will make ALL the difference. Cut with the grain and the strand will just push away.
 
I have personally witnessed Tai do his hair "popping" antics with more than one of his blades. He is indeed a MASTER. See you guys at the Full Moon :D
 
kerryd said:
The point is to find the grain and cut against it. This will make ALL the difference. Cut with the grain and the strand will just push away.
Click to expand...

Not if the blade is sharp enough. It is easier if you cut against the natural curvature but not impossible if you cut with it.

-Cliff
 
I was not referring to the curvature, rather the grain. Regardless of the curvature, cutting against vs with the grain makes a big difference (not ALL, but much). Find the grain and try it both ways.
 
I have done it many times, since reading about Tai's work awhile ago, and yes you can notice a differnce based on the orientation, just like it is easier to tree top arm hair based on direction, however it is possible in any direction if the blade is sharp enough. As noted there is a massive difference in human hair, it would be similar to talking about the difficult of chopping wood without noting the wood type.

-Cliff
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, and thank you WadeF for answering my question.

Now it's pretty clear that I need to keep at it, because I'm not actually at true hair splitting sharp yet--and still far from scary sharp. I'm a sharpmaker user, but my blades have never been sharper since I experimented with my co-workers leather strop and valve grinding compound. I now know what people mean when they say you'll lose slicing ability but gain push cutting.

I've since given back the borrowed leather strop and I'm now thinking about getting a hand american scary sharp system.
 
Heres to bumping an oldie but goodie. Since I managed to whittle my wife's hair for the first time (free hanging) yesterday I was pretty happy. I used my Dad's Kershaw Cyclone thinned to 12 per side with a 15 per side microbevel, and an edge thickness around .030". Then I plucked one of my own hairs and noticed it was much easier to whittle, as my hair is actually much thicker than my wife's hair. I guess this just gets back to the differences people see with shaving tests, and how everyone's hair being different will effect your results dramatically. I guess whittling free hanging hair is a cool parlor trick, but not the best just of pure sharpness. I really need a scale and thread to measure my sharpness to satisfy my anal retentive nature.

Mike
 
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