Thread: What to look for: Hone Wear

Been into wet shaving with a DE for about 6 months and have been loving it. I recently picked up a Ralf Aust from SRP and after about 3 weeks I'm finally getting shaves I can walk out the door with. BBS in some areas but still some rough areas and irritation. Mostly chin and corners of my mouth. Even with a learning curve I'm hooked (no one warned me).

Which leads into my question. What are some tell tale signs to look for in a razor exhibiting hone wear? Been lurking on eBay and just really don't know what to look at to spot excessive hone wear.

I am attaching an example of one I considered purchasing but thought may be showing hone wear at the toe.





What do you think? Acceptable? Or likely to be difficult to make shave ready?

Any help is appreciated.

Hi!

I like that razor. It doesn't seem to have excess hone wear to me, especially looking from the front.

You can look and learn more here perhaps: Restoring a straight razor - Straight Razor Place Library

Greetings from Germany,
OldSalt

Welcome, reelinitin.

Be forewarned.

Any razor that I've gotten of eBay has had to be rehoned, bevel set right on up to finish. I'm sure there are exceptions, but this is the rule rather than the exception according to experiences here by SRP members. You will need to send the razor out for pro-honing prior to shaving or you will *not* have a good shave. Also, tell/ask the honemeister if they will hone the razor with tape on or off.

Looks like a nice razor.

Cheers!

Actually, it looks to my eyes to have a lot of hone wear at the toe. If you look at the spine in the first pic, you can clearly see a curve from the spine towards the toe, and it's even more visible in the 2nd pic. If you look at the shape of the toe, as well as the bevel, you can see it was honed unevenly and excessively at the toe.

This is not to say it couldn't be made into a great shaver, it's just that it would have to be done so in the hands of a skilled honer.

Genco's are great shavers, and I have several.

As you look for a even bevel also look for a even amount of wear at the spine. Many razors show excessive wear at the toe. I was in an antique store yesterday looking at 5 razors. 4 had excessive toe wear. All could be made shave ready it's just harder and requires more skill. Take a bit of time and just look at the spines and bevels on a fair few razors and soon you should be able to pick it out. Good luck

Probably, the person who owned that honed with two hands and had a finger at the toe and had a bit of pressure there. Not hard to correct but not for a novice.

Originally Posted by Siguy

Welcome, reelinitin.

Be forewarned.

Any razor that I've gotten of eBay has had to be rehoned, bevel set right on up to finish. I'm sure there are exceptions, but this is the rule rather than the exception according to experiences here by SRP members. You will need to send the razor out for pro-honing prior to shaving or you will *not* have a good shave. Also, tell/ask the honemeister if they will hone the razor with tape on or off.

Looks like a nice razor.

Cheers!

Agreed - with the only exception being three blades I've purchased from the Classifieds here that were listed as shave ready, and were. I don't even bother to look anymore, LOL, just take them out of the package they arrived in to check the condition, and re-package them and send it immediately off to get honed. Not worth the bother anymore.

As stated, you're dead on with the toe wear assessment. Any time you see the facet of a flat surface along the spine you're seeing hone wear. Not to be avoided necessarily as used blades should have some but you can see those that have a lot or worse, uneven wear as in your example. Unless I was in love with that particular make and model and the price was right, I'd keep looking. There are a lot of razors in much better condition for reasonable prices. The excessive toe wear is common along with incorrect honing of a smiling blade, where there is extra wear at the center of the spine and the removal of the blades curve.

Here's one with excessive but mostly even wear, leading to an overly wide bevel- a little extra in the middle of spine and loss of any smile on the blade:



Another with fairly even wear, a little extra at the toe, but the smile is ground right off:

Once again, I disagree. There is nothing wrong with the wear on that Genco. It is a USED razor and it was common to deliberately put a smile on the toe.

I have drilled holes into the handles of several of my wood-handled hammers in order to improve their grips. I'm not concerned about some hammer collector in a hundred years complaining about how I mistreated my precious collectables.

That smile, and wear, on the toe will still shave you perfectly well. You might not cut your cheek or earlobe quite as often with it, but you can probably find some other razor to accomplish that if you really miss it.

I agree with Utopian. There's nothing wrong with that razor. I've honed some with far worse wear and with no problems doing so. My great grandfather's W&B near full wedge doesn't have any hone wear showing on the spine but if you want to see a bevel that looks like a snake track

I have found that 99.99% Of EVERYTHING about straight razors is 'Personal Preference' so if some one 'prefers' not to own a razor with this hone wear that's fine if the wear isn't something that bothers you and you would 'pefer' to own it then please do!