Thread: Need advice

Howdy Folks, I've been reading the forum for about a year now, but this is my first post. I have several vintage straights including a Boker King cutter and a 6/8's Griffon, both of which give me a great shave; actually all my razors do except for a Boker 4/8 Extra Hollow Ground, which just doesn't give me a comfortable shave. It just behaves and feels like I am not getting it sharp enough, even thought I hone it the same as I do the King Cutter and the Griffon on my 4k/8k norton. I use one piece of tape to protect the spine on my razors when I hone them and when using a jewelers loop the bevel and edge appears like the others. I have one other 4/8's no name solingen blade (which I just recently received as a gift) that also doesn't shave well.

Is this common to 4/8's? Or is it the steel used, which would surprise me as I know vintage Bokers are well regarded (both of mine are from the 1920's)?

Any ideas on this?

Thanks

Certainly my experience that below 5/8 they become trickier. It's so long since I did one now that I can't really remember what worked. Think it was harder to keep the edge in full contact but may be making that up.

Just my opinion, and may be 'controversial' but ...... if you are using a layer of tape on a 5/8 and larger, it doesn't affect the geometry enough to cause any 'problems'. Get into the 4/8 realm and it begins to be too steep an angle for a ideal edge.

This is my opinion based on my experience with a few. Other folks may have had better luck on honing a 4/8 with tape. So try it without the tape and see if you don't get better results. I'm suggesting this because from what you've said about the other razors it sounds like you know your way around a hone. Shouldn't cause too much wear if you don't use too coarse a stone and/or too much pressure.

Probably nothing wrong with the edges on your 4/8 sized razors and it just might be you have to make some small adjustment in your shaving technique. I have two 4/8s which have fine edges but seem harder to use than the larger sizes. They seem harder to get the correct angle on the blade and because they are so light there is a temptation to put more weight/force on them.

Bob

Just read Jimmy's post. You can find a handy PDF here http://www.coticule.be/wedges.html for bevel angle calculation. It was designed to help with setting bevels on wedges but it just may work for hollow grounds too. Just plug in the numbers for your razor and it will give you what bevel angle will be set.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Probably nothing wrong with the edges on your 4/8 sized razors and it just might be you have to make some small adjustment in your shaving technique. I have two 4/8s which have fine edges but seem harder to use than the larger sizes. They seem harder to get the correct angle on the blade and because they are so light there is a temptation to put more weight/force on them.

Bob

This is my gut reaction as well.

Can you rule out the profile (4/8) as the problem?

I don't suspect the tape is the problem. Generally speaking, tape will not impact geometry more than a fraction of a degree. There is the straw that broke the camel's back, but I suspect if the razor started as a 4/8 or even 5/8 you are not there yet (I could be wrong though).

Morning Bob, that is a cool app. I'm going to check a 4/8 or two that I had 'trouble' with and see if my assumption posted above was correct.

I agree with you on the 4/8 being more difficult to manipulate when shaving. Such skinny tangs and light weight. My thick fingers like a more substantial blade and some jimps don't hurt either.

Morning Jimmy

Let us know what you find out using that app to check your 4/8s. I have not used it on mine. I did use it to hone reset and hone the edge on my new wedge and it seemed to work.

I hear you about skinny tangs, lack of jimps and light weight too. That is a bad combination for my big mitts too.

Bob

I'm somewhat mathematically challenged. The spine, if I'm measuring correctly, varies but at the point it is 1.4mm. The width of the blade is 11.4mm. Actually a tad shorter but not enough to write home about. If anyone can say what that makes the actual degrees please chime in.

7 degrees.

Half the spine is 0.7

Tan(3.5)=0.7/11.4

3.5x2=7

Jimmy

The blade width sounds about right but the spine width sounds awfully narrow.

Bob