Thread: Spine Work. Do you LOVE it. or PASS it? What are yalls opinions?

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Like any honing process the details matter over time.
If you always tape the spine then the edge will get closer and closer to
the spine and the angle of the steel will get larger and larger and the
edge not as fine...

So in 50 years the geometry suffers.

The reverse can be seen on some old razors where the heavy hand of
someone has abraded the spine and the edge is now so acute that the
steel cannot support the edge.

I have a razor that I stupidly played with using a heavy hand and I wrecked the spine.
Now that the spine is messed up the razor is hard as heck to hone.

So -- yes tape the spine... Tape is good for beginners and does protect
gold and file work on a prized razor....

Once a razor is shaving well, most honing can be done at 8K or even 12K
so there is no terrible worry one way or the other.

But play with a DMT, 500 grit or 1K aggressive hone like I did, tape would have save
my razor from abuse....

My advice use a layer of tape for the early days of honing.

My question was a rhetorical one, sorry if that was not clear. Yes, I realize all that. That would have been a far better statement for the quoted poster to make rather than the blanket "You muck up the geometry if you tape the spine when honing". A statement like that is misleading and incomplete while yours is not. How many members new to honing would take that blanket statement to heart and heavy handedly, I think most of us were heavy handed at the start, whittle down the spine ruining the geometry for lack of using tape.

Bob

Ya, another tape/no tape thread is not needed, I think!

I like the scaloped spines but not so much on the fine detailed spines. I like it to stand out not blend in.

I like spine work, although I can see how it can be a hindrance in some cases. Here is the spine of a Boker 'Trophy' I recently acquired.

I love the scallops, etching, engraving etc... I like it all. But I have flashy style. I'd love to own/create a fully engraved or etched blade and scales one day. Think it would be neat. I don't have any scalloped/worked spines yet. Just one that I did on a razor I had to make a custom shorty anyways, so I figured why not work on it a bit and practice... made scales for it and everything. Realized from it not seating even when closed the blade was bent from about the heel out to the toe. So I was trying to straighten and bend it back and it just wouldn't go, and I shattered it... moment of silence for a fallen comrade fellas was not impressed at all. But now I know not to try.
I do have a couple engraved spines i'll throw up later when I have some time to take picks and transfer them over. And I want to unpin and clean up the two Brookes and crooks twins first.

Originally Posted by Wightman

I love the scallops, etching, engraving etc... I like it all. But I have flashy style. I'd love to own/create a fully engraved or etched blade and scales one day. Think it would be neat. I don't have any scalloped/worked spines yet. Just one that I did on a razor I had to make a custom shorty anyways, so I figured why not work on it a bit and practice... made scales for it and everything. Realized from it not seating even when closed the blade was bent from about the heel out to the toe. So I was trying to straighten and bend it back and it just wouldn't go, and I shattered it... moment of silence for a fallen comrade fellas was not impressed at all. But now I know not to try.
I do have a couple engraved spines i'll throw up later when I have some time to take picks and transfer them over. And I want to unpin and clean up the two Brookes and crooks twins first.

Not sure how you would straighten more fragile tempered steel without heating it first (and ruining the temper).
Also, are you sure it was actually bent? I had a razor that was ground so unevenly that the edge wouldn't lie flat on a hone. If you held it up straight on front of your eye you could see how the edge ran diagonally instead of vertically like it should.

Yea, even laying it flat you could see the run off. I dunno how it got bent.. but I'm guessiñ it had something to do with the big crack it had in it as to why I chopped it down to a shorty. But really I still don't know how it would have bent like that, as I found out, they are not easy to bend(or at least to reform bent anyways). And I had it even by spacing the one inside with a decent washer, but like summitry and thought it was kind of gody, so I insisted on trying to straighten it... fool. Lol oh well, now I know. I do hate losing a razor to my own foolishness tho, it always hurts a little.

And not trying to highjack the thread here guys.