Thread: Uneven wear question

I've tried to fix a double bevel on my "training" razor and ended up with uneven wear. It is VERY bad at the toe, pretty bad in the middle and somewhat ok at the heel. That's on one side only - the other side seems more or less ok because I've only had double bevel on one side.

My question is - is it possible to fix it at somehow? Also, I guess I put some wear on the spine and now it seems to catch the strop a little. Should I just write this one off to the learning and obtain another "training" razor?

Actually, and I don't mean any offense, but it sounds like you've got something buggered up bad enough that you shouldn't get a different razor yet.

I'd suggest taping the spine and trying to fix the double beveled side with 4K strokes on just that one side, then remove the tape and do 4K strokes on both sides to smooth out whatever spine problem you've created. First with a little finger pressure on the center and on the toe, then without pressure.

If that doesn't work get another razor and try again. You can send this one to me and I'll fix it and send it back.

Can you take any close-up digital photos for us? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you're describing.

I doubt that whatever you've done ruined the razor. I put thousands of strokes on my first blade and it still honed up fine and was none the worse for wear.

Fixing weird wear patterns can be a little tricky, and you'd be well served to send it to Alan. Establishing a proper bevel is 80 percent of honing, in my book.

Josh

Doing circles on a 1k hone would be a quick way to help establish an even bevel. Work both sides and try to work evenly, compensating for whatever it was that you did to make the bevel uneven in hte first place.

X

I've tried to take a bunch of pictures with the camera and microscope and I couldn't get anything that would represent the problem.

First of all, I appreciate all offers to fix it but I've gotten that razor with a sole purpose of practicing honing, so someone else fixing it would kind of defeat the purpose.

As far as the spine goes, it's nothing bad. I've taped it for most of the process but it's still got some wear. If you imagine a bell curve and cut a slice off the top, that's what it looks like. There are slight edges that tend to scrape a strop. Does it make sense to anybody?

Now, I'll try to explain the edge - if you were to measure the length of the bevel, you'd get maybe 1/4 mm at the heel, 1 mm in the middle and 1/2 mm at the toe. Numbers aren't real - I just want to make a point.

So I've managed to fix double-bevel and I can shave with it but the bevel is just uneven. Is that something that I can (or need to) fix by doing circles?

If the uneven bevel is caused by uneven pressure during your honing stroke, then more honing with an even stroke should fix it. If I notice something like this developing, I'll usually start using the side of my Norton 1K, which means I'm using a 1" wide hone. It's harder to do unequal strokes that way.

More often than not, I find the cause of this pattern of wear is a slight warp in the blade. The toe and heel are warped away from the middle, so the middle gets more wear. Is there a corresponding (but opposite) pattern on the other side, i.e. thin bevel in the middle, thicker on the ends?

If not, it's probably due to some glitch in your stroke. It's easy to do.

Josh

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

More often than not, I find the cause of this pattern of wear is a slight warp in the blade. The toe and heel are warped away from the middle, so the middle gets more wear. Is there a corresponding (but opposite) pattern on the other side, i.e. thin bevel in the middle, thicker on the ends?

If not, it's probably due to some glitch in your stroke. It's easy to do.

I doubt it's blade warp. I'm pretty sure it's my fault. Since I've had a double-bevel more pronounced towards the toe portion of the blade, I might've unintentionally put more pressure towards that area. At least that's what I think happened.