Thread: "Sharpness" - is it a bevel issue?

Originally Posted by Damo

Sorry for the delayed reply gentlemen - been on an awful run of night shifts. Appreciate the comments, and thanks for all the useful links. I've picked up a loupe - both 60 and 10 mag. Going to have another session this afternoon with a friend.

Do share the outcome!

Well.....it was fun. We enjoyed ourselves.
And then we had a whiskey and stopped honing. TBH I think I need to do a bit of work just by myself with a tomato and a loupe!

Originally Posted by Damo

Well.....it was fun. We enjoyed ourselves.
And then we had a whiskey and stopped honing. TBH I think I need to do a bit of work just by myself with a tomato and a loupe!

Sounds like the right outcome to me! To be honest, that's the most important part - that we enjoy ourselves. Practice makes perfect, this happens on its own anyway

Another advantage to the cherry tomato test is you can force a patina onto your edge.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Another advantage to the cherry tomato test is you can force a patina onto your edge.

Yes, was going to write that earlier, how to stain a blade in one easy step....

Well, i think Stefan summed it up pretty well in post #3. BTW, the cherry tomato works fine and doesn't stain blades in the 3-5 seconds it is exposed to tomato juice. I digress, but my current favorite bevel set test is HHT1 or better off my suita mid grit. If it doesn't pass HHT off this stone, the bevel isn't set. If it struggles, I can do better.

To me, the OPs question is a "necessry and sufficient" kind of thing. It is necessary that the bevel be set, that is the bevel planes meet in an uninterrupted line, for the razor to achieve sharpness. That the bevel planes meet in a line is not sufficient though, we must then polish the bevels to the point the apex, or "meeting of the bevels" is further refined to achieve sharpness to shave with.

Cheers, Steve

Hello Gentlemen, thought you might like an update after the help provided.



Had a day off. I settled down with some Ben Howard, and some tomatoes.
Took the Othello and did the whole sheebang from 1-12. After 1K, I stopped and had a look under the x60 loupe and tested with a tomato. Compared to my pro honed King Pelican there was no difference in appearance. No light reflected from apex. The Cherry tomato test was then performed - with no appreciable pressure applied, it dug in to the tomato when I applied a sided to side slight motion. There was a small area in the middle of the blade that didnt "quite" cut as cleanly, but still cut the tomato.
I then went up on the grits, and spent a wee bit longer on the 8K as suggested.

Shave test is tonight before bed.
Many thanks for the help. At least it cuts a tomato!!

Maybe that middle area you mentioned will pose a problem later. I wonder why that is.. usually the middle is the easiest to get right, unless there are weird geometry issues.

Anyhow, if it shaves well, I'd leave it be for now. You can always come back to it

Originally Posted by Srdjan

Maybe that middle area you mentioned will pose a problem later. I wonder why that is.. usually the middle is the easiest to get right, unless there are weird geometry issues.

Anyhow, if it shaves well, I'd leave it be for now. You can always come back to it

If it did not cut the tomato skn effortlessly, the bevel is likely not properly set.

I've had two razors lately with low spots on one side of the center of the spine, the bevel therefore was not hitting the stone properly in the middle. You can tell, the bevels got vanishingly thin in the middle on one side. Both were Solingens, one a name brand and one a vintage no-name.

It happens.

Cheers, Steve

Shave test is tonight! I realised I didn't have a shaving brush with me at my girlfriend's house

It cut the tomato pretty effortlessly. I just noticed that wee spot where it wasn't quite as easy. Interestingly, I didn't notice that spot after the 1K hone. I noticed when I repeated the tomato test at the end of the progression. Either I missed it on the first test tomato (more likely), or I did something to that part of the edge during progression/stropping