Thread: Uneven bevel, never honed

Hi all,

I've learned a ton about straight razor shaving and maintenance on this site, love it! Today I have a question: I purchased a 5/8" hollow ground blade from the Art of Shaving in December, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I read a lot about "shave-ready" blades not being truly shave ready, and whether or not that is true I don't know, but my blade is starting to pull at the hairs a bit now, so I wanted to try my hand at honing (I bought a cheap ebay blade to practice on first). I ordered a naniwa 12k off of amazon for that purpose, should arrive soon. What I've noticed though, having never honed it before, is that the bevel is even on one side, but uneven on the other. The bevel extends farther up the blade toward the middle, and on either end of the blade the bevel is shorter (which I assume means it is a more wedge-shaped edge at the end instead of a narrower, sharper edge like in the middle).
Could this be due to stopping, or do you think it came that way? I don't use a pasted strop.

Thanks!

It came that way. The grind is probably a little uneven. That won't affect the function of the razor.

If your eBay razor isn't shave ready, it won't do much good for practicing on the 12k, other than perhaps to train your muscles in an even stroke. You won't get feedback whether your technique is effective.

If you want, I'll hone the eBay razor for free so that you have a finished edge for comparison. Send a PM if you're interested.

My first new was AOS 5/8 solingen(its a dovo) . Crooked spine and short at the toe. Over 1 hour on the dmt 325 for pre bevel. Then dmt 600, 1200 norton 4(lots of circles to remove scratch pattern from dmts) norton 8 naniwa 12k. Close to 2 hours total time. It shaves great now. Not a good blade to start with.