Thread: Should I Dull Blade on a Glass

When I go to reset a bevel should I dull the blade on a glass first. Ive seen some people do this and was wondering what the experts here think.

Thanks
Guy

I hesitate to respond because I am far from an expert but unless there is something unusual you are trying to do I say no. I'm in the camp of taping the spine to set the bevel and hone the blade.

In my opinion that is for demonstration purposes.
If you are resetting the bevel you are resetting the bevel, no need to potentially add work.

There has to be a reason to reset the bevel in the first place...right? So...that being the case, it really doesn't matter if you run the edge across a glass bottle or not. If it's not set to begin with you're not really resetting it are you???

The only time I dull the edge with a glass bottle is after shave testing the edge and then preparing to do a restore...WHICH I ALWAYS DO BEFORE DOING ANY WORK ON A RAZOR! My reason for dulling the edge is basically because it reduces 'finger-hand-etc. slicing accidents' during the restore process.

YMMV....

The reason I believe for dulling the edge is to assure that any wire edge is bent to a position to be cut off by the home. That prevents false slurry reading by removing any chance of the wire damming the slurry after the first couple strokes. It also would prevent some of the edge chipping as old edge is broken rather than honed off. No wire edge would also help to read the edge more easily during honing by a 'scope.
YMMV just my take on the matter!
~Richard

Intentionally dulling a razor is unnecessary. Doing whatever your plan was for it, either touching it up or honing, can begin with the blade as it is. To quote Ace's Honing Bible: "Thou shalt not remove any steel that there is no need to remove." Or, as we say down here in Virginia: "You ain't got no reason to take steel off of nothing nohow unless you got a reason to and there ain't never no reason to."

I used to quite often in the learning phase after the 1k and 4k. This ensures the edge is refreshed on the hone your working on. I dont do it much if at all lately.

I share what pfries said. Working the edge on the 1k stone will remove enough metal to get you a fresh new bevel, dulling the edge on glass will only add more more work to get that the two sides of the razor to meet.

"Killing the Edge"

You actually do this gently when you use a TNT this is an added benefit of that test

Never been a fan of the glass trick if I need to kill the edge I use the corner of the stone, just like they did in the old days..

The only reason to do this intentionally is is there is an issue with the edge like they said above.. Also after a restore this is a pretty good idea since the edge needs to be evened up and I do not mean "Breadknifing", when you buff out the blade you are creating a ragged uneven edge so if you do your circles then a few X strokes, Kill the edge gently on the corner of the stone and start again you will end up with a smooth edge easier, and probably save some steel...

The reason for this, as mentioned above, is to assure that the two planes meet to establish a clean bevel and to take out possible extremely minor defects in the edge.

After you dull it (at least on glass/ceramic), a good stropping usually is enough to return it to the state it was in before. So it seems that all it does is to bend the very edge just a bit, which you want to straighten out evenly along the entire edge.

It's not a requirement by any means, but it does add some certainty and less "It should be fine" speculation. A good bevel is a good bevel.