Thread: Honing a concave / warped blade

Today I received a razor in very good condition, doesn't seem to have seen much use, later on it became apparent why it probably hadn't.

The blade is warped. (extra hollow blade)

The first thing I do when receiving a blade is look down the edge and check for straightness.
Next thing I do is use a permanent marker and color in the entire edge.


Lucky for me this razor was already shaving arm hair on both sides over the entire edge, very smoothly I might add, I knew the bevel was already established and I wouldn't have much work with it in the early honing stage.

Brought it to the stones and noticed one side getting completely good contact and erasing the marker over the entire edge using a modified x-stroke, the other side only a small part of the toe and heel made contact.
Uh oh!

I've been restoring vintage Solingen, mostly Henckels and NEVER had a warped blade, says something about their quality.

Anyways, I tried focusing honing on the outer part of my Naniwa hone, but noticed it took too long and the marked edge in the middle was still there.

I dulled the edge and colored it in again and brought out a smaller hone, a modern bought La Veinette Coticule, has a somewhat woodsy pattern in it as well, very fast but smooth stone. I proceeded with slurry and re-set the bevel and did a few dilutions until I finished on plain water.

These narrow hones easily erased the entire marker and made good contact over the entire edge. At first I didn't think it would work, but these narrow hones work extremely well.

(Always been a big fan of narrow hones and smaller razors, not sure why)

Stropped it up and passing a very good HHT over the entire edge. Only thing left is the shave and that's all that matters.

Although I'm not a honing expert, I have honed my fair share of razors (personal use only).
This was my first warped blade and I immediately thought that I had wasted the money on this razor.

Thanks to the resources on this forum I didn't get discouraged and put the razor away to be forgotten but instead got it to function the way it was intended. So thanks all for contributing.

Shave on!

You could also just set the Naniwa hone on edge to get a narrow hone as an alternative.

Bob

Mine are set in a holder, but that's a good idea!

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

Mine are set in a holder, but that's a good idea!

Was afraid you'd say that.

Bob

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

Mine are set in a holder, but that's a good idea!

While for now we can't bring up past posts links to show what happened--basically Glen (GSSIXGUN) had me either imagine or draw a 1" wide line on my hones (I drew the lines) and then concentrate my honing on only the 1" wide area.

I'd struggle for hours and within less than 1/2 an hour I had a nicely honed and smooth shaving razor.

Just some food for thought

Roy, can you expound on that? I've heard that before and have tried it a little but it makes no sense to me. There still remains the other 2'' of hone that gets in the way of (or holds up) the rest of the blade that you are trying to avoid.Or should i just try and find the video?

Originally Posted by tintin

Roy, can you expound on that? I've heard that before and have tried it a little but it makes no sense to me. There still remains the other 2'' of hone that gets in the way of (or holds up) the rest of the blade that you are trying to avoid.Or should i just try and find the video?

See if this link works now

By the way, if it does--you'll find lots of 'conversation' about the technique.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...than-mile.html

I would like to see a vid of the honing using the 1” line method

Originally Posted by cudarunner

While for now we can't bring up past posts links to show what happened--basically Glen (GSSIXGUN) had me either imagine or draw a 1" wide line on my hones (I drew the lines) and then concentrate my honing on only the 1" wide area.

I'd struggle for hours and within less than 1/2 an hour I had a nicely honed and smooth shaving razor.

Just some food for thought

Originally Posted by Jnatcat

I would like to see a vid of the honing using the 1” line method

It's nothing special, just basically trying to float the toe of the razor a bit and use an x-stroke to hone the entire length of the concave side on or very near the heel corner of the hone. Personally I prefer a narrow or slightly convexed narrow hone for warped razors.

Interesting idea eKretz, an idea inspired by slip stones for honing concave gouges or even something like scythe hone. Such a hone would surely make honing warps easy peasy as well making easy work of smiling wedges which normaly require you to do a rolling x stroke. But with a radiused hone, It would be quite intuitive. Would be kind of a PiTA to make a lapping template to keep it radiused though but I have used radiused sanding blocks for guitar fretboard work that might fit the bill.