Thread: honing old wedge blade without making a large edge

This topic is timely for me as I just watched a Charlie Lewis video on honing a smiling edge and a gssixgun video on the same. Weirdly, CL lifts the spine at the end of a rolling X and gssixgun does not lift the spine. CL effectively freehands the blade while he is coming off the hone.
The confusion here seems to be a geometry challenged razor vs a smiling edge???

As a novice but enthusiastic honist, a smile on a razor with a straight spine seems to be a different animal from a smile on a razor with a curved spine. It makes sense that the former will not sit flat on the hone and the latter, where the bevel mimics the curve of the spine, will sit flat on the hone (both razors without geometry problems). Not sure if this will help the OP. I'm trying to work this out for my own honing adventures really.

Originally Posted by BobH

Yes, it looks like a heel forward rolling X stroke might have done the job. That would keep you off the flat on the tang which looks like you honed into on the second photo. The tape on the spine should stop just before/at where the flat starts on the tang. That would be my amateur honers guess.

Bob

This is something that all of us have to confront at the beginning (where I am and I'll bet you are not!). It really requires one to look at the style of the blade to get cues on how to hone it. Using conventional intuition won't work because conventional intuition would say that the bevel of the blade, the actual cutting edge, can be honed by running the razor on the hone at a 90 degree angle to the spine. If you do that on this grind of razor you will grind into the flat and effectively destroy the razor which is a little sad.

Originally Posted by WW243

CL lifts the spine at the end of a rolling X and gssixgun does not lift the spine. CL effectively freehands the blade while he is coming off the hone.
The confusion here seems to be a geometry challenged razor vs a smiling edge???

i saw the same video and i thought he lift up the spine :/

Originally Posted by WW243

This is something that all of us have to confront at the beginning (where I am and I'll bet you are not!). It really requires one to look at the style of the blade to get cues on how to hone it. Using conventional intuition won't work because conventional intuition would say that the bevel of the blade, the actual cutting edge, can be honed by running the razor on the hone at a 90 degree angle to the spine. If you do that on this grind of razor you will grind into the flat and effectively destroy the razor which is a little sad.

Novice honer here no expert by a long shot. I have to say though that I have very few razors that will sit with the spine and blade flat on the hone, most have some sort of warp/twist to them. That being the case I generally wind up honing with a rolling X stroke heel forward for either smilers or ones with straight edges and spines. I have learned the hard way that you do not want to start your stroke on the tang or run tape up on to the tang. Heel forward helps keep me of the tang while honing.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Novice honer here no expert by a long shot. I have to say though that I have very few razors that will sit with the spine and blade flat on the hone, most have some sort of warp/twist to them. That being the case I generally wind up honing with a rolling X stroke heel forward for either smilers or ones with straight edges and spines. I have learned the hard way that you do not want to start your stroke on the tang or run tape up on to the tang. Heel forward helps keep me of the tang while honing.

Bob

If you watch the blade edge as you do your rolling X stroke, heel forward, is the edge and the spine in contact at all times?

Originally Posted by WW243

If you watch the blade edge as you do your rolling X stroke, heel forward, is the edge and the spine in contact at all times?

Never really looked but I assume so.

Bob

If you want to shave with it, you may have to sacrifice visual aesthetics. Too much emphasis on spine wear and bevel wear, so long as it shaves well IMO. If you do not like spine wear, hone without tape until the bevel is correctly set. Then take it back to the buffers and buff out the spine wear and use one layer of tape to re-set your bevel.
Mike

Originally Posted by WW243

It makes sense that the former will not sit flat on the hone and the latter, where the bevel mimics the curve of the spine, will sit flat on the hone (both razors without geometry problems).

No.... A smiling edge can never lie flat on a flat hone regardless of spine shape. Two intersecting planes result in a straight line. Euclid ca 300 BC.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

No.... A smiling edge can never lie flat on a flat hone regardless of spine shape. Two intersecting planes result in a straight line. Euclid ca 300 BC.

Gotcha, but the spine and the edge will always be in contact because the spine at some point is only partially on the hone. So a smiling edge lays flat on the hone, just not all at once. Right?