Thread: "Waves" on my bevel.....

Originally Posted by Haim

Wrong forum... sorry....
can anyone put me in the right place....?

Moved to Honing forum

Originally Posted by pinklather

Haim, Greetings.

The guys tell you right about not using a nice blade for your learning mistakes. God knows I brutalized a few.

If I could, I'd suggest holding off on learning to hone for a bit. Unless you have some experience of a number of people's edges to compare to, you won't know what you're aiming for with your methods.

If you're like me, the excitement was too much - and I tried to learn to shave and to hone at the same time. Lets say I bled alot. You're probably more skilled than I was.

The regret for me was that it held back my shaving skills. My edges were shaveable, but quite harsh. I know you have skilled guys there in Israel - maybe look up the screen name 'Manah' here.

Quite often, guys will hone for free, just to get more experience. I've done (and still do) that. The photos you posted could be a couple of things - your honing, or a wavy blade. Try the magic marker test - paint the bevel w/ some felt-tipped marker and take 2 stokes on a stone with NO pressure. A wavy blade will have sections that don't remove the marker until you do alot of grinding for the bevel set - and the result looks like what you posted. I would say that's not a blade to learn to hone with. Something full hollow, without warp or wave, no smile (and certainly no frown) in the cutting edge. For the sake of your sanity, and to speed up your learning, it would be worth it to buy a sound but ugly blade (so its low-cost) that has these attributes - that you can practice on and get to know what 'normal' honing feels like. Then, maybe try a smiling blade and master an arcing stroke that smoothly reaches all parts of the bevel in the stroke. (another recommendation from Glen I'm grateful for)

Now about this specific blade - it sounds like it will always be more work to hone well - your're working around the warp (if that's what it is). It can be made to shave well, but will just take more work.

Its a huge thrill to get your first shaveable edges. Best of luck as your learn.

I doubt that I'm better in this than you... Just exited and wanting to learn more and more... :]
Thanks for the advice! I have a comparison from two razors which came shave ready (and now are not). Nonetheless, I might get a nasty looking "damaged sight unseen" straight from whipped dog, in order to have another comparison and to have something to make rookey-mistakes on in due time :]

Originally Posted by Euclid440

What’s the other side look like? The spine wear looks wider in the photo directly above the middle. It may have some warp to the blade.

What did the spine and bevel look like when you started?

What are you honing on?

The other side has a very mild wave on it (towards the toe), and the heel has a very thin edge. (picture below)
When I started I didn't see an edge. I think it had this exact shape, because with the strokes I did there is no way I could remove this much metal..
The spine on the other side has a weird pattern of hone ware which I hope you can see...
I also found out that the spine is a bit a-symmetrical.... picture below...
I used 1k king stone.

Any bend looks like it's at the tang, and given the opposite side is that even, I'd lean in it just being varying thickness in the grind. Regardless of what it is, I'd do the last step of your process with tape with a bevel that big if you're new to honing. It'll stack the deck in your favor as long as the bevel was fully set.

I see a thin strip on the side that looks "good", is that the original edge?

Originally Posted by DaveW

Any bend looks like it's at the tang, and given the opposite side is that even, I'd lean in it just being varying thickness in the grind. Regardless of what it is, I'd do the last step of your process with tape with a bevel that big if you're new to honing. It'll stack the deck in your favor as long as the bevel was fully set.

I see a thin strip on the side that looks "good", is that the original edge?

Maybe... All you can see from the edge is the work of my 1k...
When I got it, I couldn't see any edge... It looked like it just got off the buffing wheel...

A little update:

Apparently, I was very naive when I thought a new hone will come lapped. Before I started, I lapped it only a little in order to clean it....
I decided to check if it is lapped, so I drew a grid on it with a pencil and started lapping for about a minute.
Needless to say, it wasn't lapped. Sufficed to say - it wasn't even close.
It took me 25 minutes (!) of extensive grinding until the grid wiped out from the sides of the stone (and it was not erased from the water).

Nonetheless - I didn't return to the J.H. Potter.
I took one of my Solingen (August Jorges), that has a straight edge and full hollow grind, and started the process on it:
No apparent damage to the edge, so I only did light (no pressure) stokes.
1k: 60 X strokes until arm hair shaved.
4k: 80 strokes until scratches from 1k disappeared and the strokes felt different.
8k: 40 strokes, until scratches from 4k disappeared and arm hair shaved with no pressure or effort (by simply passing the blade)
12k: 40 strokes until blade gave more resistance, and arm hair still shaving off with no effort.

Shave results:
I'm proud to say that I made a straight razor "shave ready" (by my newbie standards). :]