Thread: Pulled the trigger on a Dan's primitive

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Your heel corner is close to the stabilizer, and you have hone wear over the stabilizer and on the stabilizer. Honing on the stabilizer will keep the edge off the stone and you could be keeping half of the edge from making full contact.

If you go to a Ark the edge must be already refined (at least a good 8K)as they cut/polish slowly, or do a lot of laps.

Reshaping the heel will move the corner further from the stabilizer and prevent riding on to the shoulder. Don’t be afraid to use more pressure with an Ark and lighten up for finish strokes.


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Is it razor geometry or technique? Wouldn't a slight heel leading stroke correct for this without needing reshaping?

When I look at the NOS World Master Special current on the FS page, to my eyes that heel geometry looks very similar to this razor with respect the corner and stabilizer.

It is a razor repair not regular honing. The Correction should be made first then honed regularly.

The previous owner clearly had an issue with honing the razor and particularly the heel, so he applied more pressure on the heel not realizing he was on the stabilizer. It is not hard to do and is a common issue with a lot of razors, probably at least 50% of the razors I see, even new razors.

The hone wear on the spine indicates a warp, wear on the heel on one side and on the toe, the other,

On that razor you could hone the heel with the edge forward stroke, or a straight stroke with the heel jammed into the corner of the stone, but you would have to be careful keep the heel on the edge of the stone or it will ride up. The corner of the edge should be about a ¼ inch from the stabilizer for easy honing, and aesthetics.

Once you create that issue, (heavily grind the spine over the heel) you create another at the edge for the life of the razor. It can be mitigated with tape and careful honing, but could easily be avoided when honing, with a few strokes in less than a minute with a diamond plate or low grit hone.

It is not just a heel problem, (getting the heel honed) when you hone on the stabilizer, half of the edge at the heel is off the stone, or at least not making full contact, and more pressure and contact is on the toe half of the edge, compounding the problem at the edge. It may account for a lot of the wonky razors we see where the width and edge bevels are not uniform.

So, even if you are not riding the stabilizer each stroke, you can be creating other issues each time you do.

Yes, that razor in the BST has the same issue, probably because of the buffing, (lost some width) note the toe. It is not uncommon. It was the first thing I thought, when I first saw that posting. Personally, I think rounding that heel would improve the look of that razor, a beautiful razor.

I see the same issue on new Dovos and TI’s, as said it is an easy fix that literally just takes a minute. I include it as part of a regular honing and routinely move the edge corners away from the stabilizers even if a whole correction is not needed, just part of maintenance.

I looked at the first dozen razors on the BST and everyone of the razors that had stabilizers could use heel correction, some badly. All had edges on them and had been honed that way for years.

As the razor wears in width the corner naturally moves towards the stabilizer. On some razors the stabilizers are not that tall and grind down easily and the heel get honed, though probably not as keen as It could.

I shave with the heel a lot, so a keen heel and toe are important to me and may be something I look at more than most folks. But as I said it is something that can easily be corrected and should.