Thread: Please help!

Originally Posted by Jtats

i have had this issue before. Your making the edge very thin and fragile. It has no backbone. Happens more one hollow or extra hollow grinds. Try to set bevel with less strokes. Maybe do 1/2 of what your doing on the 1k and then check if bevel is set. So sneak up on the bevel. Also when you get to the 8k or 12k shave test and see if the edge crumbles before going to the 20k. When you do the TNT test your actually killing the edge so do 5-10 laps to bring it back and then go through your progression. Remember there is no exact lap or stroke count. Lynn only gives you a rough template. Doing circles moves a lot of steel. Depending on how far out your bevel is maybe X strokes will set bevel.

If my latest honing does not work I will try this thanks!

Originally Posted by Jtats

i have had this issue before. Your making the edge very thin and fragile. It has no backbone. Happens more one hollow or extra hollow grinds. Try to set bevel with less strokes. Maybe do 1/2 of what your doing on the 1k and then check if bevel is set. So sneak up on the bevel. Also when you get to the 8k or 12k shave test and see if the edge crumbles before going to the 20k. When you do the TNT test your actually killing the edge so do 5-10 laps to bring it back and then go through your progression. Remember there is no exact lap or stroke count. Lynn only gives you a rough template. Doing circles moves a lot of steel. Depending on how far out your bevel is maybe X strokes will set bevel.

It does not matter how many strokes are used to set the bevel. You do not need to sneak up on it. If the edge is harmed by doing too many strokes during the bevel set, then the steel is crap and cannot handle progressing on to any higher grits. Rather than doing half of the strokes and then checking if the bevel is set, the monitoring of the bevel should be an ongoing thing.

Either circles or x-strokes, or any combination, can be used to set the bevels. Circles just are faster.

Yup, bevel is not fully set, so it starts out shaving, then crumbles.

Even without a set bevel you are not doing enough laps on the other stones to polish the bevel.

Set the bevel, whatever that takes, then joint the edge on the corner of the stone and reset the bevel, should only take 10-20 laps. This will give you a strong straight edge and fully set bevel.

Then polish out all the 1k stria with your 5k and then polish out the previous stone with each stone up the progression, whatever that takes…

Strop your razor prior to going to the 20k. Experiment with the number of laps on the 20k, until you find what works best on each razor. Make sure the 20k is properly lapped and the edges rounded or beveled, it is a very hard stone.

Here is a good post (Second try at Honing) that has excellent photos of what to look for in the bevel and edge.

Euclid440, I will check that out and thank you for the tips. I never thought to strop before the 20K. Well I have good news and bad news! The good news is I apparently set the bevel properly as the edge did not crumble this time! The bad news is I didn't get the razor as sharp as I like and it still gave a good but mediocre shave . Thank you everyone for your help I will keep at it till I get this right....

Well finally success! I got some nice edges on my blades that gave me BBS smooth shaves until the next day. The funny thing is I got the best edge on my gold dollar that I didn't use tape on! I'm talking Lynn Abrams smooth! The problem is I tried a couple different styles of honing and I don't rmember exactly what type of strokes I used on this blade to have gotten it so darn well behaved . Again thank you everyone. Hope all is well and happy shaving.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Yup, bevel is not fully set, so it starts out shaving, then crumbles.

Even without a set bevel you are not doing enough laps on the other stones to polish the bevel.

Set the bevel, whatever that takes, then joint the edge on the corner of the stone and reset the bevel, should only take 10-20 laps. This will give you a strong straight edge and fully set bevel.

Then polish out all the 1k stria with your 5k and then polish out the previous stone with each stone up the progression, whatever that takes…

Strop your razor prior to going to the 20k. Experiment with the number of laps on the 20k, until you find what works best on each razor. Make sure the 20k is properly lapped and the edges rounded or beveled, it is a very hard stone.

Here is a good post (Second try at Honing) that has excellent photos of what to look for in the bevel and edge.

This is excellent advice - that I recently followed and it absolutely solved my similar problem on a 5/8 Dovo. After much frustration - doing exactly what Euclid440 recommended resulted in a fine shaving edge off my 12K Naniwa and I haven't brought it back to the hone in a month - still holding a nice comfortable edge.

Adam