Thread: Can't seem to set a straight bevel

Originally Posted by bill3152

The blade may be warped. Flat honing doesn't always work out if the blade geometry is off. I hone to the blade meaning if the blade is warped or short at the heel or toe, I rock it on the hone to follow the contour of the blade. This would be very hard to do with film as you would tear it up.

No, if you look at the bevel there is a wide section maybe even a frown matching on both sides. Geometrical warp does not look like this at all. Most likely that's where he keeps his finger, applying uneven pressure concentrated at that part.

The spine is uneven but not bad at all, for that level of flattening due to honewear, and that much unevenness on the bevel the problem is the honing. Of course, the razor has serious problems too - it's missing at least 1/16", may be even close to 1/8" of the width, the stabilizer is messed up. I consider this one past its life. Not that it can't be made to shave, but to me it's simply not worth it - there are so many razors in far better condition that there is no point in spending so much effort fixing stuff like this. I'd only use it as box cutter, scales donor, or give it dulled to somebody to practice stropping.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

..."Many people like to say honing is easy, right up until it isn't"...

I like that; and it's so true.

I'm one of those who say honing is not rocket science, yet I've only honed less than a dozen razors and all but one or two had no inherent 'issues'. Luckily, Oz spotted a stabiliser problem early after I posted a pic of my De Pews and gave good advice on that, which helped heaps...

Suggestion. As the razor is something that you'll want to keep.... You might want to send it out to be done the 1st time. After that it may be easier to maintain.

agreed, i would definitely like to keep it in the family, i would love to work my way up to restoration, but not with this razor, I'll buy some cheap ebay specials for that haha

Border

Don’t buy into that “no tape theory when honing.” As you can see, when you are learning to hone, new honers typically will spend too much time on aggressive low grit hones with too much pressure and remove too much steel from the spine needlessly, it cannot be put back on.

Once you have learned to hone, then decide if you want to tape or not. It does not affect the edge geometry enough to affect the shave, regardless what some preach.

Buy a handful of Gold Dollars to learn on.