Thread: Trouble setting a bevel

Your second photo shows two patches of rust. How long did you wait between honing and photographing that razor?

This was taken this morning. Last honing session was several days ago

Ok well you are going to have to hone away that rust if you want any hope of a decent edge. Whenever you are finished honing you need to wipe or strop the bevels right away to dry them.

Relap your hone to get a nice clean surface that is not clogged from your previous efforts.
Just lap until your honing surface doesn't look dirty.
Now with a freshly lapped hone and a freshly taped spine try a few x strokes with very light pressure.
It shouldn't take that many strokes, maybe 15 or 20 back and forth, and then try the sharp test again.
If you still are not happy with your sharp test results repeat the 15-20 light pressure strokes and try again.
When I started honing I had read that the water hone would wear fast enough to provide a self cleaning surface. What often happens is the tape we are using becomes too worn and the adhesive is exposed to the hone surface. The resulting surface looks dirty because it is. A dirty hone surface is a very inefficient and the resulting frustration of trying to work with it often results in too much pressure being used to try to speed up a process that should have ended successfully long ago.
I hope this post will be helpful to you Charlie, and good luck with your efforts.

p.s. I really like your choice of a colored tape. If you look closely you will be able to see the colored residue of your worn tape mixed in with the grey metal particles released from the bevel. That will help you decide when the hone needs refreshed.

@galaxy, yours may have been the most helpful post. Thank you! And thanks to everyone else with all the tips and advice

Will keep an update

Looks like you are getting nice even bevels .. What kind (Brand) of razor is this we are working on..

You are not honing to the edge, (clearly visible in the photos), the bevel is not fully set, the toe might be...

The first photo in post 30 shows that you are riding the tang on the stone, wearing away the tape and keeping the heel portion of the edge, off the stone. Note the uneven bevel on that side, (wider at the toe, narrow at the heel and the wonky bevel in the middle of the edge, on both photos), on the other side, the bevel looks even and there is no wear on the tape.

Stop the circles, put 2 layers of tape on the spine, ink the bevel and do heel forward strokes with the corner of the heel on the stone and the stabilizer off the stone. Make sure the corners of your stone are rounded or beveled.

Look straight down on the edge, with magnification, if you see shiny reflections, the bevels are not meeting. You are very close, but need to pay attention to the heel portion of the edge. Ink will quickly, tell you if you are making progress.

This is an old ja henckles. I'm using a Norton 1k to set the bevel then will pyramid hone it on a Norton 4k/8k

Figured it out Charlie you have multiple threads going with tons of conflicting and confusing advice basically you are chasing your tail...

I posted advice and a link in your other thread

I would have merged the threads for you but they are too long on the forum and would make it even more confusing