Thread: Targeted Honing

Is it possible to target an area of a razor for honing. There are a few millimeters near the toe of my razor where the bevel has been removed. Should I hone the entire razor until the bevel is even all the way accross, or target that area of the razor somehow?

Both actually. There is no way of effectively honing just the toe, however that should be the area of concentration and likely you would concentrate on that spot but not exclusively hone it if that makes sense. Without a picture it is tough to know what the real answer should be. I am merely guess and maybe my mental image is off from reality. The question in my mind is who honed it last and how/why was the toe left out?

This was an ebay purchase. When I first got it, it looked like it had absolutely no hone wear at all. I did hone this myself, but shaving with it wasn't as comfortable as it should have been. I had a look through a 20K loupe and everything looked mostly good. One or two nicks that I was able to hone out. Otherwise, a nice even bevel along the entire blade with the exception of a few millimeters just before the toe. Not sure if this was self inflicted or not, but it sort of looks like there is a dip in the edge where there is no bevel, and then up again into a nice bevel the rest of the way to the toe. So would I focus on that area by occasionally applying some additional pressure with a finger over that spot on the blade? How do I give attention to one area?

Originally Posted by Slurryer

This was an ebay purchase. When I first got it, it looked like it had absolutely no hone wear at all. I did hone this myself, but shaving with it wasn't as comfortable as it should have been. I had a look through a 20K loupe and everything looked mostly good. One or two nicks that I was able to hone out. Otherwise, a nice even bevel along the entire blade with the exception of a few millimeters just before the toe. Not sure if this was self inflicted or not, but it sort of looks like there is a dip in the edge where there is no bevel, and then up again into a nice bevel the rest of the way to the toe. So would I focus on that area by occasionally applying some additional pressure with a finger over that spot on the blade? How do I give attention to one area?

If the toe needs some extra help, I will often hone with half of the edge off of the hone to give the toe some extra help. Most often there is an issue with the grind that's keeping it from making contact. Getting the heel off the hone is usually enough to compensate. Afterward I'll do a few x strokes to even it out. The rolling x stroke helps too.

There are a few things that may or may not apply. I see a lot of razors that have a little less on that last 5-10mm at the toe with a tiny swoop up. I think that some are that way on purpose as they tend to bite less. It is easy to make it that way with a little J hook at the end to the stoke. That same little J hook is a good way to hone it as well, however it is a slippery slope because you can easily wind up creating some impossible geometry problems at the same time. As already stated the rolling X. The edge of that blade must not be straight and it likely has that little smirk by the toe. The marker test is a good way to tell when your stroke makes full contact. The trick is finding the right modification of your stroke for that razor.