Thread: High bevel angles, hard to hone razors

I am always a bit suspicious about old razors that show no hone wear. In my experience many were problem razors that had issues and the original oner gave up on it and stuck it in a drawer.

I see that a lot with warped razors. Before I did anything drastic like grinding the spine, I would hone with just Kapton and see how it shaves. Make sure it is not warped and that you are not honing on a stabilizer.

Even old Gold Dollars with massive, warped spines will shave.

Some photos would help advise you.

Something is certainly up,
you can tell by feel that something is odd; the razor even wants to tip over on the edge while honing.

The spines and grind aren't perfect symmetric.
Some have irregular wear on the spine. too, so that adds to a wonky / wavy bevel.

Part of the edge - spine makes good contact, in other spots the edge doesn't touch the stone.

I can fix it by using narrow hones and take my time,
or focus honing on the outer side of the 1K, doing some sort of rolling x stroke.

But I'm wondering how important the bevel angle is for a good shave anyway?

I don't measure the bevel angle often, but am wondering what lower and upper limit degree make for a good shaving angle?

My older ones gravitate more towards a 20° and some later ones towards 15 - 18°.

I notice the ones between 15° - 18° to be very easy to hone, while all the other from 20° and up to cause a little trouble. But that might just be me.

I do not ever measure bevel angle and have never honed a razor that will not shave.

I doubt that folks were measuring angles in the early 1900’s. Bad uneven grinds and warps are another thing and I think are the cause of a lot of honing issues that the bevel angle get blamed for.

I hone warped razors in 3 parts. First establish that the razor has a warp or hollow by putting it on a flat surface. Hone the concave side in 2 parts, hone the heel with a rolling X, but keep the heel on the stone until halfway. Then hone the toe starting with half the heel off the stone. Ink the bevels so you can see where you are making contact.

Then blend the heel and toe by doing a rolling x where the heel comes off the stone at the beginning of the stroke and ends at the toe at the other end of the stone.

The convex side is honed with a rolling x but rolling up. The amount of rolling up or down depends on the razor and where you are removing ink, but it is generally very little.

Ink will quickly tell you what is going on at the edge. I use ink on every razor, it is not just a learning tool. Colored ink is much easier to see.

Gotcha, big thanks, really appreciate the feedback, this will surely help!