Thread: Honing out a chip

On the weekend I bought a razor (Germania Cutlery Co. Germany) in fantastic condition except for a decent sized nick in the blade. The price was definatly right and thought I could just work the nick out on the hones. This Brings me to my question, what is the best way to work this out?

I have a well worn DMT 325, and 1200, Chosera 1k, Norton 4/8K, plus some finishers.

I started on the 325 and after countless circles and x-strokes it felt Like I was getting nowhere. It was in fact, just very slow going. The next day I went back to it but just using the chosera and a countless number of circles again. Every once in a while I would drag the edge across a glass bottle (thank goodness for beer) and kept going.

I have most of the nick out now visible with magnification or some serious squinting. The problem is I went ahead and sharpened i,t and it is by far my sharpest / best shaver to date. It was so smooth and cut my beard like butter minus the one slightly dead spot.

For future reference when I will more then likly pick up more razors with nicks, how do you get them out and how long should I be expecting to take to work it out?

Just noticed this threat:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ing-nicks.html

Its a start.

Originally Posted by MrRyder

On the weekend I bought a razor (Germania Cutlery Co. Germany) in fantastic condition except for a decent sized nick in the blade. The price was definatly right and thought I could just work the nick out on the hones. This Brings me to my question, what is the best way to work this out?

I have a well worn DMT 325, and 1200, Chosera 1k, Norton 4/8K, plus some finishers.

I started on the 325 and after countless circles and x-strokes it felt Like I was getting nowhere. It was in fact, just very slow going. The next day I went back to it but just using the chosera and a countless number of circles again. Every once in a while I would drag the edge across a glass bottle (thank goodness for beer) and kept going.

I have most of the nick out now visible with magnification or some serious squinting. The problem is I went ahead and sharpened i,t and it is by far my sharpest / best shaver to date. It was so smooth and cut my beard like butter minus the one slightly dead spot.

For future reference when I will more then likly pick up more razors with nicks, how do you get them out and how long should I be expecting to take to work it out?

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The fact that you stayed on the 1k for such a long time may well have caused you to set a fantastic bevel, whether by accident or on purpose. This is probably why this razor shaved so well for you. The proper bevel set is step one when honing any blade with chips, frown or other edge imperfection. Congrats on your statement, "it is by far my sharpest / best shaver to date".

Yes sir! As was said, the bevel was set! Really set and there you go. I think too many people spend too much time at the higher grits when they should spent more on the lower. You cant polish an edge that isn't there!

No magic to taking a nick out. You just have to keep at it until it's gone. I mostly use the 1K to take nicks out but if they are larger I'll go lower. Probably circular strokes work best for that.

I'd start by looking for any other heavy work the blade needed and do all at once. frowns, smiles, warp, chips all involve moving a fair amount of steel. no point duplicating effort.

Most of the terms used for sizes of nicks/chips/etc are rather subjective, so a photo would help.

To "hone" them out, I use my Chosera 1k and a layer of tape. Once I'm at good steel, or very close, I take the tape off. I prefer no tape, but don't want to put excessive wear on the spine.

For "edge restoration," I'll use either my Chosera 1k or a DMT. On these, I will lift the spine a bit (the lower the better, but consistency is important too) until I'm just about good steel, then it's on to the 1k with tape till it's just about there, then the tape comes off. Again, to prevent excessive wear on the spine.

It depends on the size of the chip. On large chips I bread knife on a 325 Diamond plate, drag the blade at about 45 degrees to the plate to knock off the edge, then edge straight down 90 degrees to the plate. Then some back and forth sawing motions to just about remove the chip. I have found these Eze Lap Diamond Hand Files or Credit Cards work well for bread knifing with the edge held up, spine resting on the bench. Use these 90 degrees to the blade at about a 45 degree angle front to back. If you use these finish bread knifing on a full size diamond plate to get a straight edge parallel with the spine.

Once you have all but removed the chip, hold the blade 45 degrees to the plate and begin to knock the corners of the edge off and begin building a new bevel, this will save you tons of time on the 1K. Once you are close to getting the two bevels to meet and you can still see a thin white line reflection when looking straight down on the edge, move to your 1k.

On the 1k apply 2 layers of tape to protect the spine, do 20 circles at a time with pressure on each side to build an even bevel. Once you get the two bevels to meet, remove all the tape and re-tape with 1 fresh layer. Again looking down at your edge until the white line of steel completely disappears and the two bevels meet at a sharp edge. Lite pressure, full length finishing strokes on the 1k will pay big dividends later in an even bevel and a keen chip free edge.

I have found if you stay on the 325 Diamond plate until the bevels meet, you will have to spend extra time removing micro chipping and in the end removing more steel than necessary.

So this response brings up 2 contentious and hotly opinionated methods, Bread Knifing and Tapeing. Whether you Breadknife or hone normally you will remove the same amount of steel to remove a chip. And if you don’t tape you will remove steel from the spine.

I can go from beginning to a 1K bevel set in 15-30 minutes using this method, depending on the size of the chip. Do what works for you, this has worked well for me.