Thread: Does this defy physics? Honemasters help!

You can tell a lot about an edge with a good 10 dollar jewelers loupe from Amazon. I have a 10x, 30x, and 60x all with a light on them. Especially the 60x you can see any micro chipping and extremely small cracks. Both of which will make a blade "sharp enough" but not Shane well. But that wouldn't affect the while edge. Try doing the Sharpie test at bevel set and maybe even at 4k. But also your stroping comes into play. And with your razors that are sharp at heel and toe but not in the middle and vise versa you probably have razors that have slight frown or smile but also could be improperly lapped homes. (just throwing out ideas) what grit your finishing on. If u use chromium oxide (especially on a paddle strop) how it's applied comes into play when the strop maybe dished and your stroke on strop. But can be and this is what it sounds like to me, your angle on each side of your face is off or the center of the point of your bevel isn't directly I've the center of it's spine when standoff the blade up while it lays on it's spine. Think of it as the center of the spine is your angle point and your tip of bevel is at 90 degrees from table. If not like previously stated each side of bevel may differ in angle, witch comes from improper honing for a length if time. It's like more pressure was either on a down stroke or a back stroke than on the opposite stroke for any length of time while honing. Or the blade was bent in the dished part of the grind lengthwise in relation th the edge. A tell tell sign of that is the width of hone wear on the bevel being different on the face side of bevel than on the back side. Anyway a loupe might help with your answers. Hope my input helped.

it's not at all uncommon to have one side sharper than the other. I guess it's all about angles.

Something I started doing, because I cannot tell whether the bevels are symmetrical from one side to the other, is watching my water flowing up the bevel onto the belly of the blade. If one side flows up and the other side just pushes the wave I hone on the side opposite until each side flows up into the belly. Not scientific, and I cannot measure it beyond my naked eye, but it makes me feel good and seems to work well.

After reading this thread, I began looking at how I shave. TBS’s post about one side sharper than the other due to possibility of differing angles did not make complete sense to me. Yes, the bevels could be different but by how much, a half a degree maybe, enough that I could feel the difference?

Now, I have never felt one side was sharper than the other, but I do have some problem areas that always need a touch up and take contortions to shave properly, mostly at the corners of my mouth and the chin area directly below.

After observing my shaving technique, I discovered that I hold the razor at different angles at times, from one side of the razor to the other, by as much as possibly half the angle of attack, quite a bit.

For me it has to do with how I hold the razor and my ability to cock my wrist. I can change the angle by adjusting my hold on the razor but unless I do so consciously, I revert back to my old grip out of comfort.

So it may not be the angle of the bevel and edge as much that affects the shave, but more the angle on how we hold or are able to manipulate the angle with our wrist and fingers.

I have always attributed these problem areas to wild beard growth and there is some of that, but in fact it may be my ability to maintain a constant angle when switching sides, due to the limitation of my wrist.

Interesting…