Thread: First attempt honing on cheap razor

I purchased a cheap enzo razor of eBay Link and a set of the king 300, 1200, 6k and 10k hones to practice honing Link

The razor sharpened up nicely and cuts even better then my freshly, professionally honed dovo however the bevel (the v), on the cheap Enzo razor is massive compared to my dovo razor....

On the enzo it would be about 1mm
On the dovo it would be less then 0.2mm

Would this be due to putting too much pressure on the spine when honing or is it just because its a cheap razor.

I have attached a photo although I don't know if you will be able to see the edge.

Ignore the scratches on the enzo, it is only a practice razor.




Thanks,
Chris

I had to read a few times to figure out what you were asking. By "edge," you meant bevel, right?

The width of the bevel is entirely due to geometry. Honing involves converting a "U" shaped edge into a perfect "V" shape. The bevels are the regions of steel that are removed to accomplish this, and they form planes defined by the apex of the edge and the spine. The angle is determined by geometry and so is the width of the bevel. Whatever amount of steel is in the way to form those planes is the amount of steel that is removed to form the bevel. The width of that bevel is thus dependent on the thickness of the steel near the edge. Thicker steel will lead to a wider bevel. Thinner steel will be a narrow bevel. Varying thickness will lead to a bevel that a beginner will swear was honed wrong.

You CAN widen a bevel by pushing way too hard, but that's less likely.

Well, I created some really high bevels when I first started honing. It was a result of getting bored after breadknifing a blade and having to spend hours on 1K. The result was pressure, always a mistake. There is almost never a reason to breadknife a blade.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I had to read a few times to figure out what you were asking. By "edge," you meant bevel, right?

Yes, thanks Utopian, I have corrected that in the post above.