Thread: Honing a slightly warped blade

I have a solingen blade with a slightly warped spine and I'm having only
moderate success touching it up.

On the convex side, the bevel at the center of the blade is very narrow, and
on the concave side the center of the edge does not fully contact the hone.

I have been taping the spine and I've tried using a different stroke for each
side: a rolling stroke when honing the convex side, and applying slight finger
pressure to the center of the blade when honing the concave side.

Am I on the right track here, or should I be doing something different?

Should I remove the tape and allow the convex side of the spine to wear a
bit at the center?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

You can keep the tape on, do the magic marker test and see where you are. If you are close, keep at it. If you have a long way to go, maybe a rocking stroke, but that may not help you if its not making contact. Then maybe a narrow hone, or keep flattening the blade. Things can get ugly though.

Attack it from the other end

It is also an option to go from the spine side add a 2nd layer of tape BUT let me explain a "Trick"

Put on the first layer, then using the 1k stone and applying pressure to the spine (The exact opposite of normal) do some X laps your objective is to wear the tape,, It will wear out in the high spots and stay good in the low spots, much like using Inletting Black you are leveling the playing field.. As soon as you hit bare metal on both sides STOP...
Now add the 2nd layer of tape.. and proceed to hone the razor normally, never remove the 1st layer until you are done honing...

Depending on how bad the warp is sometimes just adding the second layer will eliminate the issue

These are tape tricks, and they work very well, but they are tricks, they are designed to get to a well honed shaving edge without adding uneven wear to the spine or bevel...

Or as you said, you can grind the crap outta the spine trying to even it up


Hint:
The cheapest way to use a Narrow Hone = Draw a pencil line down your wide hone, leave about 1.5 inches to one side, now adjust your honing strokes (Gymnastics) to stay only on that 1.5 inches of hone.. This accomplishes the exact same thing as using a Narrow hone without having to actually buy one Once you learn those Honing Gymnastics you can leave off the pencil line too ...

As usual, you've steered me in a direction I never would have thought of on my own.
I'll give both tips a try.

Muchas gracias, amigo!

Glen....I tried the 2 layers of tape method first: 1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, ZG.
The shave test was just OK, so I'll try the tape reduction method next.
It's almost there!

Paul, did the bevel even up at all ??? it might be hard to tell because in most spots it will be smaller then the old bevel...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Paul, did the bevel even up at all ??? it might be hard to tell because in most spots it will be smaller then the old bevel...

Yes, it did...but not by much, so I went ahead and tried the tape reduction/2-layer method
that you described.

Now the bevel still isn't exactly even, but it is much improved. There is still one narrow spot
on the bevel, but at least I was able to get full contact with the hone.

I did the full 1k-12k progression, but decided to stop there. I'm not entirely confident with
the Zulu Grey stone, so I'll shave test the 12k edge tonight or tomorrow morning and let
you know.

It looks better, it passes the TPT with flying colors, and it's popping arm hair easily. All in all,
a great improvement.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

It looks better, it passes the TPT with flying colors, and it's popping arm hair easily. All in all,
a great improvement.

And the shave was greatly improved, too. It's still only about 90% of where I want it to be,
but improved nevertheless. The technique works, but my skill level still leaves something
to be desired.

Thanks, Glen!

Just a trick, it helps even it all up so you are shaving with minimal steel loss, honestly the shave should get better next time through

I was thinking that a 45deg heel forward stroke might help too.
Thoughts??