How do you deal with stabilisers that are low?

Something I've been thinking about recently. I was honing an eBay special and the stabilisers were hanging low and were rubbing on the hone which was lifting the rear of the blade off the hone. I was also honing the bottom of the stabilisers wheich seemed kind of odd. Anyway, I got out the Dremel and ground back the stabilisers so the edge of the blade sat proud again and made full contact with the stone. As I was doing it, I was wondering what I would have done if it was an expensive razor that ruled out using the Dremel. So how do you get around this?

This is sometimes part of what we fondly refer to as Honing Gymnastics :)

I use a DMT 325 and some rather imaginative moves on it to shape round and cutback the shoulders..

There is a Vid on my Youtube Channel that I have never posted on any of the forums, if you want to watch it then you have to go find it, it has to do with breadknifing but in there you will see exactly what I am talking about when dealing with a heel /shoulder problem... It is an Extreme example but you will get the idea...

I find that using just a slight angle on the razor to cant the shoulder off the hones whether doing circles or X strokes works very well. Grinding the bottom of the shoulder off is a last resort for me and usually you really don't need to in my opinion. That said, on same razors, you really don't have any choice but to try to remove or correct that part of the heel.

Have fun,

Lynn

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Originally Posted by johnmrson

As I was doing it, I was wondering what I would have done if it was an expensive razor that ruled out using the Dremel. So how do you get around this?

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I've seen expensive razors ground with very little breathing space at the stabilisers. If the owner takes a sizeable chip out of the blade ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I usually use a slow (134 rpm) wet grinder but I've blown some heels with it. A DMT is much safer on old brittle steels.