Thread: nice shave, beveled right?

Just shaved off of the first razor I ever honed. Old barbers razor. Orginally dull and rusted on edge. The spine had more wear in the center than at the toe and heal. I have cereal bows that are not as dished as the hone that the barber had. When I set the bevel on the 1k norton, the bevel was about 3/16 at the heal and toe, but a little more than 1/16 in the center of the razors edge. Spent about 25 minutes on the 1k and checked the edge with a marker while honing to be sure that I was beveling from heal to toe. I was, and did not want to remove to much metal and was thinking about an article of lynn's where he stated that he likes to shave off a small bevel, so I got off the 1k and did a pyramid progression from 25/25 on the norton 4k/8k down to 1 stroke on the 4k to 5 on the 8k. Was popping hair, but would not pass hanging hair test. Since the razor that I had "professionally" honed would pop hair and would not pass hht, I decided to stropp it 50 strokes and test shave. The shave was real nice, no tugging, only cut mysef one time, on the chin. QUESTION is, if the razor shaves right, is the bevel right? My limited understanding is, being that the spine wear determines the new set bevel, Do I go back to the 1k and remove a small mountain of steal, or keep shaving with it and gradually even out the bevel next few times I need to hone? Any feedback, words of wisdom or waxing phylisophocal would be appreciated!

I don't know what is "right" but from your description I would say it is fine if it is shaving well for you. I have razors with unequal bevels from one end to the other and as long as they shave well I leave well enough alone. Just IMHO. Congrats on honing one up and shaving with it.

Appreciate you Jimmy for sharing your knowledge and experience. After shaving with the first razor that I ever honed, after only shaving with a straight about 8 times prior to this, along with a great sense of achievement, I felt like... Birth of the cool! Thanks again, Lynn's articles on honing and the various you tube videos of the like were a great foundation to work off of. Thank's Toxic waste and plexus. It is true, we can only keep what we have by giving it away.

The only true test is the shave test. There are a fair few threads and questions about the various tests and results out there, thats for sure!

To give an example with the HHT, I have a Boker Edelweisse that I got from SRD and was honed by Lynn, so I KNOW the edge is shaving sharp. For me, it'll pass the HHT about 60% of the time, for my dad every time and afor a mate of mine it just wont do it at all. One razor, and three different results, but I'll tell you one thing for sure, the shave is excellent!

What it really comes down to is, if it shaves good then it is good.

Congrats on the successful honing as well, its a really great feeling to shave with a razor you have honed yourself!

At the end of the day the razor is a tool,
If the tool does the job and does it well, then its working fine and no need to change it.

Bevel is visual hallucination. has nothing to do with sharpness of the edge. You bevel could be shiny and edge crappy or vs verse.
bevel could small bad edge or vs verse. so on.
as long as it shaves as it suppose to be you should be happy.
gl

Originally Posted by shortmoneyshave

Just shaved off of the first razor I ever honed. Old barbers razor. Orginally dull and rusted on edge. The spine had more wear in the center than at the toe and heal. ...The shave was real nice..

Be sure and celebrate this accomplishment. You took a rusted old razor and got it to where it delivers a good shave. How cool is that? Very cool!

Thankyou all for sharing your experience, encouragement and wisdom. It is only natural to be a little intimidated by that which is unfamiliar. There is no skill that hasn't been learned. I am encouraged to keep practicing and honing my skills and will more comfortable with the next razor that I hone.

Some razors have a warp to them, or an unevenness to the grind that means the bevel is never going to be even. For me, "setting the bevel" just means getting rid of any edge damage and ensuring that the two sides of the bevel meet in the middle. It sounds like you've acheived those goals, so don't worry about the uneven width.

Josh

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

Some razors have a warp to them, or an unevenness to the grind that means the bevel is never going to be even. For me, "setting the bevel" just means getting rid of any edge damage and ensuring that the two sides of the bevel meet in the middle. It sounds like you've acheived those goals, so don't worry about the uneven width.

Josh

Yup.

Setting the bevel is converting the edge of the blade from a "U" shape to a perfect "V" shape along the entire length of the blade. The width of the bevel is irrelevant.