Thread: Another Wavy Bevel Question...

Hey Guys,
It's been awhile since I posted. Busy with work and a pregnant wife. You know how it is.

Anyway, I've still been slowly picking up razors and tinkering with the ones I had here in China. However, I had a couple that had been sitting in my closet in the US for over a year. I decided to send a NOS Hess 44 for Max to hone and a Henckels 401 for him to restore. Additionally, I added in one of those old razors, a FWE Special, that had been sitting in the closet. When I left it, I thought it looked pretty good, some slight pitting, but I might not have stored it too well and

Long story short, Max called and said he would have to send that one back as he would have to remove too much metal to make it worth it. He suggested putting it on ebay with detailed photos of all the problems and listing all the problems and perhaps someone would pick it up for a restore practice and/or the scales. Overall the blade looked great with a mirror polish. There was just too many pits near the bevel. He actually took a marker and showed it all to me. Sure enough, when I got it back in China I put it under the microscope and it looked like craters on the moon.

Anyway, I couldn't be bothered to put it on ebay, so I figured I would start hand-sanding and see what I could do with it. After sanding from 240 grit- to 2000 grit I still thought there was too many micro pits near the edge. Decided to go back to 400 grit. This time, I pretty much removed everything near the edge. Took it all the way to 5000 grit and brought it back to mirror.

Then started honing on it. Needless to say the initial low grit sanding removed too much near the belly/edge and now I can't seem to get a straight bevel. Here is a photo:



I tried to hone past the bevel problem. Blade was originally just over 18mm spine to edge, but the wavy bevel never seemed to get straight. Rolling X, circle strokes, etc... Nothing worked.

After a couple hours of low pressure on the Norton 1000, I had a razor that could pass HHT all along edge at 1000 grit level... unfortunately with a wavy edge. After spending so much time working out the pits and bringing it to a mirror, I wanted it to look perfect.

I took that edge and did Brad's (Undream's) flipper trick holding the razor in the middle and making sure the edge was straight. That brought me to just under 18mm spine to edge.

After honing for another couple hours with low pressure the picture above is what I am left with. Still wavy. Just under 17.5mm Spine to edge.

My question is, do I just live with a wavy bevel or try to do something to flatten out the belly in the spots where the bevel looks wider? I think the narrow bevel spots are where I used to much pressure hand sanding and left the blade a bit too thin.

Note: I have been honing with one layer of tape.

Plenty of good shaving razors out there with wavy bevels . You just have to get the 2 sides to meet & form an edge. Every thing behind it is irrelevant to the beard. Just to play devil's advocate are you sure the spine isn't causing the waviness. I appreciate you want to keep it pretty & spare the spine wear but if the spine is not straight the edge won't be either.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Plenty of good shaving razors out there with wavy bevels . You just have to get the 2 sides to meet & form an edge. Every thing behind it is irrelevant to the beard. Just to play devil's advocate are you sure the spine isn't causing the waviness. I appreciate you want to keep it pretty & spare the spine wear but if the spine is not straight the edge won't be either.

Hey Onimaru,
Thanks for the response. Took a straight edge to the spine. No gaps. It is definitely caused by too much pressure when hand sanding. I feel like I removed too much material, but I also may have deformed the edge a bit where I was pressing. I know I can get it shave ready with the wavy bevel, just didn't know if any of the restorers had tricks to eliminate it.

To the mods: I just noticed I put this in the gallery. Meant to put it in the general workshop forum. Is there a way to move it, or can someone move it for me?

I think you are right about the cause being the hand-sanding. It is true that the wavy bevels
will still shave, but you have to look at them too, don't you? They'd drive me nuts whether the
razor shaved well or not. While you might be in danger of removing too much steel, I can imagine
putting sandpaper on blocks, setting the razor in a vice or jig of some sort, and carefully
straightening out the bevel. I haven't tried it, but I think I would if I had a razor like yours.

If you're going to try to even up the edge remember that wider shiny segment is a high spot & not the other way round.
Very risky to straighten if you've warped the edge.
btw PM a mod if you want the thread moved.

Work out the geometry of a bevel. The angle between the bevel faces is constant -- it's set by the ratio between the width of the blade and the thickness of the spine.

But the _width_ of the bevel depends on the thickness of the blade! So if the blade is thicker in some places (like you sanded less in that area) the bevel will be wider there. And where you sanded a whole lot, and the blade is really thin, the bevel will be very narrow.

If the _edge_ is reasonably straight, and the bevel is "set", I wouldn't worry about the varying width.

Charles

I used to get that a lot when I was using a dremel for restoration work. I never did find a good way to even it out.
If it's shaving good, I would just leave well enough alone.