Thread: Advice Needed/Marker Test Results

The razor I am honing is getting frustrating. It was an old antique with a little hone ware, I have seen worst, so I decided to use one layer of tape. After honing a bit it was not producing a good bevel. I decided to use the marker test: What is happening is the edge is not being cleared, or it still remains black. Do I keep on plowing at it? Or do I need an new game plan?

Close up pictures of both sides of the blade would help.

If the edge is not being cleared then you are not at the point of establishing the bevel yet and more steel needs to be removed. Depending on how wide the bevel is, type of razor, amount of hone wear etc., you could try adding another layer of tape and see if that speeds it up a bit or gives you results. A pic would definitely be helpful

Pics are not actionable at this moment. I do think the bevel is not there but the best way to get it there. I guess I could try more tape but want to avoid that if possible.

The spine has been worn and bevel is relatively wide.

If the spine has been fairly worn and you have a wide bevel then your best bet is to try adding another layer of tape.

I had a frameback that had a ridiculously huge bevel (have since given up on it because I deemed it unshaveable and is now a wall-hanger) that I plowed away on for a good half hour on a Norton 220, then at the suggestion of Randy I dropped to a 100 diamond but couldn't get the bevels to meet. So some razors just don't want to shave anymore...

I have, however, had good luck creating a frameback out of brass tubing on razors that were dead from spine wear. Split the tubing down the length and sneak it down the spine. The tubing must be even (no kinks or high spots) in order to give repeatable results.

Good luck,

Andrew

Well, the only other option without adding more tape is just more grunt work on the lower grits until that marker wears off evenly and consistently with each honing stroke. A little bit of pressure and some circles/short back-and-forward strokes may help speed things up.

James.

Originally Posted by adbuett

I had a frameback that had a ridiculously huge bevel (have since given up on it because I deemed it unshaveable and is now a wall-hanger) that I plowed away on for a good half hour on a Norton 220, then at the suggestion of Randy I dropped to a 100 diamond but couldn't get the bevels to meet. So some razors just don't want to shave anymore...

I have, however, had good luck creating a frameback out of brass tubing on razors that were dead from spine wear. Split the tubing down the length and sneak it down the spine. The tubing must be even (no kinks or high spots) in order to give repeatable results.

Good luck,

Andrew

Maybe you slip some tubing onto the frameback?

unless of course the bevel angle would be to far beyond the proper shaving range.

I recently was honing a razor that would not take a bevel. Very little hone wear, used one layer of tape, then two, then none. Used the marker test every time and I was hitting everything, still not popping hairs. I had to walk away from it. I came back to it, looked the razor over more closely this time. What I came up with or my theory is the spine through to the shank was very wide to me for the size of the razor, I believe the razor was much larger at one time. It may have had a large chip and was just ground out instead of honing it out so it didn't have the spine wear to match the width. I don't know if that makes sense but it did to me. If it was a 6/8 and someone just ground the edge down to 5/8 without touching the spine I would think the geometry would be way off and cause all kinds of headaches.

Yours sounds like the opposite problem