Thread: May Have Over Honed?

I bought my first SR off of the classified here on SRP, it was from a reputable member that has a honing service. I was supposed to be shave ready. My first shave was uncomfortable to say the least so I just assumed it wasn't honed right. I know now that probably wasn't the case. But at the time I didn't and I decided to hone it again. 4k/8k nortons not sure how many strokes. Still didn't feel comfortable so I decided to hone it again. 4k/8k norton using the pyramid method on wiki. It felt better ( and technique was getting better) but I still thought it could be sharper. So I honed it again 4k/8k nortons per wiki pyramid instructions. It seemed pretty sharp and I was starting to get better shaves but now I'm noticing small chips on the blade after stropping. I noticed the strop had scratch marks on it and inspected closer and saw the chips. I would appreciate any advise or thoughts as to why this is happening. Thanx

You could have chipped it when you were honing it . If you didn't think the razor was shave ready , you should have returned it , and got your money back from the seller . Maybe the seller will re-hone it for you . I don't think over-honing will cause visible chipping , but improper honing technique can .

Depending on you straight experience there could be a few answers. You could have honed too much and made the edge so fragile it started to crumble, or your honing itself did it or you got it that way. Obviously it will need to be rehoned so you might want to contact the honer and maybe he'll do it again for you.

Did you lap both sides your hone and bevel the edges the edges of the hone first?

I notice that when I get tired, I tend to be sloppy in my strokes and occassionally will tilt the razor on the stroke (thus, tilting the spline off the stone). If that happened to you and the edges of the hone weren't beveled then perhaps you chipped the edge.

I don't hone when I'm tired, and take frequent breaks to rest my arm and shoulders to make sure this doesn't happen.

But, I'm about as far from a honemeister as you can get. Realizing my limitations, I try to be very careful when I take a razor to the hones, and that I'm not tired when I do.

Kent

Another possibility that will chip or roll an edge is heavy pressure on the strop or hones.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Another possibility that will chip or roll an edge is heavy pressure on the strop or hones.

Would honestly be my guess as well. Don't feel bad, I think most if not ALL of us used waaaayyy too much pressure in honing, stropping and the actual shaving when we first started. At least I did.

In all of those activities anything more than the weight of the razor itself is risky territory.

Too much pressure on the hones makes consistency very hard but if you are consistent you'll get an edge that is actually a little thinner/weaker than is intended. Then when you go to the strop too much pressure makes that tiny tiny edge want to fold back and forth like a soda-pop tab...and just like a soda tab will eventually break off, so did your edge. (Maybe)

It's all speculative now, but wanted to take a chance at the "HOW" instead of just the "WHAT."

Again, don't feel bad. *IF* that's the problem...I bet we've all been guilty of it. Every single one of us.

Definitely contact the seller though.


Another possibility is a "dirty" strop. If it's got stuff in it big enough for you to "SEE" the damage I'm sure you'd hear it while stropping though.

When I get a jagged, chipped edge as you describe, I joint the edge on the 1K hone, then hone as usual on subsequent hones. Even though this works well for me, I must warn you that some question whether jointing is a good technique. So, proceed at your own risk!

When I joint, I lay the razor on its side at about 20 degrees above flat and drag the blade edge along the edge of my 1K hone one time. Then, I lay it over and repeat from the other side, elevated about 20 degrees. Each time I drag the blade edge across the edge of the hone I use very light pressure. Then, I feel the edge using the TPT. It must feel buttery smooth. If not I hone regularly a few passes, then rejoint the edge, repeating until it feels smooth.

Once I get the edge straight, then I hone to shave readiness as usual.

do you use your norton stones for sharpening anything else?Could the surface of them be contaiminated with other metal or something?

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I didn't send the razor back because after I started reading some of the other beginers experiences I came to the conclusion that the razor was probably hone properly but my technique was why I wasn't getting a good shave and by that piont I had honed it myself. I don't use the nortons for anything else and I did lap them with a flattening stone but I didn't round the edges. I also checked with a brite light for flat spots and a magnifying glass for chip after I honed. Everything looked good. So somehow during my stropping is when the chips occured. I guess at this piont I have to fix it. I saw the jionting technique which sound a little drastic for the size of the chips. Would laps on a 1k or 4k take away small chips? Should I back hone as discribed in wiki "fixing over honing"? Other then sending it out to be honed, what would be my best approach?

This might help

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...tml#post694888

The first questions I would ask are

What brand of razor
What system of hones did you use
How many laps