Heavy vs hollow grind honing

Did a few key word searches but came up short on what I was looking for.

i can get my half to full hollowed razors much more keen an edge than my quarter to near wedges.

The edges on my heavier grinds are smooth and shave well but the hollowed grinds get to that next level sharp while still being very comfortable shavers.

my current hone set up is a king 1k and naniwa 5k, 8k, 12k. I hone through the whole progression then finish on the 12k. I have been using the finishing technique that Glen has demonstrated on the Norton 8k with awesome results.

I have been playing with different amounts of pressure at different areas of my honing progression. The kind of pressure I'm talking about is very little to none. I found with the more flexible blades they respond really well to adding pressure at specific points of the honing progression where with the stiffer ones it doesn't make much of a difference with the finished edge.

I've gone through a month or more of frustration as to why I can't achieve my desired sharpness with heavier grinds. I assume it's technique given how well the more hollows grinds take and hold an edge.

Are the bevels wider on the heavier grinds?

I began, long ago, adding an extra layer of tape and going at the finisher a bit on worn wedges as I think they are done. Works a treat most times.
Cannot hurt to try! :shrug:

Will try extra tape.

On one of my W&B the bevel is alittle wide but not excessive, the other three are pretty normal looking.

I did just shave with one of them and the shave was good but not great. Seems pretty consistent across the board, just step below where I like them.

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Originally Posted by jfk742

Will try extra tape.

On one of my W&B the bevel is alittle wide but not excessive, the other three are pretty normal looking.

I did just shave with one of them and the shave was good but not great. Seems pretty consistent across the board, just step below where I like them.

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Well, the sometimes-maligned technique has been described and used by the custom-maker Tim Zowanda for a long time. It seems to work great on the heavier grinds, FME . Certainly has worked for me. 10 laps or so.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jfk742

Did a few key word searches but came up short on what I was looking for.

i can get my half to full hollowed razors much more keen an edge than my quarter to near wedges.

The edges on my heavier grinds are smooth and shave well but the hollowed grinds get to that next level sharp while still being very comfortable shavers.

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That's probably why they stopped making wedges . Hollows are easier to maintain.

So turns out I wasn't spending enough time on each hone. After setting the bevel I wasn't spending enough time on subsequent hones and was using too much pressure. Even though the bevels were well polished I wasn't getting every bit out of each step, I think due to the width of the bevel. Also I stopped using pressure, ie torquing the blade, and just started using the weight of the blade for every stroke at 8k on. My theory is that the heavier blades don't flex and the torque I usually will use with 1/2 to full hollows isn't tolerated and degrades the edge and then when I would move to my weight of the blade strokes as I was finishing up on a hone it wasn't quite enough strokes to get back to the edges best refinement for that hone. I initially realized this when trying for a third time to get really keen edge out of a smiling 13/16 WB. I hadn't spent enough time on the 8k to remove all the 5k marks, but didn't see it until I was on the 12k. Being generally lazy and by this time extremely demoralized by this razor, I decided to trudge on. After getting 60-70 weight of the blade strokes in and still having 5k scratch marks, I started trying to top arm hairs. Surprisingly enough it took most without tugging. OH JOY!!! I could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel! I backed up a hone and removed all 5k scratches with a really light touch, did 15-20 finishing strokes(the lightest most perfect strokes I can manage) and moved to the 12k, did maybe 20 finishing strokes then rinsed the hone off and did finishing strokes until the hone was damp. Unfortunately I had already shaved that morning so I had to wait until today, boy, was it worth it! I am no big fan of big heavy blades, but this thing sure does shave nice!

Hopefully if any fellow novice honers are struggling, that my little story will help circumvent a possibly very frustrating struggle with a "problem" blade.

A pic of the offenderhttp://http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...image.jpg1.jpg

Glad you got it sorted. I had the same issue with the first few heavier wedges that I honed. I don't always use a loupe for hollow grinds but I use one between every stone on heavier wedges. It's the easiest way for me to know when to move on.

Great info. I have a smiling near wedge (Saunders of NY), which I'm just about to send out for professional honing, as I'm not sure how to deal with it, and didn't want to wreak it. Once I get better at honing (only did it once so far), I'll try tackling the wedge. Saving your info in my honing notes.