Thread: Difficult blade.

Yup, bad steel, breadknife or do as Shaun advised, hone it, kill the edge, hone it again, kill it and hone it one more time. Either way you are getting to good steel. Old Sheffield steel is good steel, but rust is rust…

10X may not be enough to see damage to the edge. 60X lighted loupe for $2 is a good investment.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Yup, bad steel, breadknife or do as Shaun advised, hone it, kill the edge, hone it again, kill it and hone it one more time. Either way you are getting to good steel. Old Sheffield steel is good steel, but rust is rust…

10X may not be enough to see damage to the edge. 60X lighted loupe for $2 is a good investment.

If I'm starting from bevel set, I always kill the edge and do it again just to make sure now. It leaves no doubt as to if the apex has been properly formed. If it's a chippy razor I kill it again on a hard white Arkansas and bring it back with that stone too

I have never been a big fan of breadknifing, but sometimes I will "sharpen" a razor like you would your pocket knife with the spine raised.

Nothing wrong with killing a edge either, sometimes you have to get to fresh material at the edge.

No matter what, if you like the razor, send it to me if it doesn't work out for you. Sometimes another set of hands can bring one around...as long as the temper isn't blown. I have run into that two times since I have been at this sport, first time almost made me pull my hair out until I talked to my honing mentor. Just cover the return shipping.

Just made an order to SRD and in it is a 800 grit super stone. I will put the razor aside until it gets here. As for the offers to hone for me i really appreciate the offer but to tell you the truth i really don't think the blade is worth shipping both ways. For me it's just being hard headed. I will make this thing shave. When the 800 grit gets here i thing i will add an extra layer of tape and then start with the 400 then go to the 800 then the 1K and finish honing as before. If this doesn't do it i will start looking for another peace of rusty steel to play with. Again thanks to those who offered to hone. if the blade was better i would send it to you.

Way to hang in there man.

Go watch drmatt's video on the 5 essential things you must know for bevel setting. I had 3 razors that I never could get where I wanted them. A couple of hours after this video, they were perfect.

That is some seriously aggressive bevel setting with a lot of metal removed. After that aggressive of hone work I should hope the bevel would be set and any weak metal removed.

Originally Posted by RezDog

It is hard for me to explain why I think it help, so lets just jump to what I do and forget the why. On a restored razor. I will typically set the bevel and then kill it on the corner of the 1K hone and set it again. As I watch the edge come together if it starts to develop unevenly, as in one section is good but the other is not there yet, or has missing pieces, I will kill it hard one more time, and then hone to finish. If it comes together fairly nicely after the first hard kill, I will gently take it off on my thumbnail and then bring it back with just a handful of strokes on the 1K and then move up. In my mind it is all logical but hard for me to explain. You may be getting to the same place by having re-honed it.

I like your method..... I'll have to give that one a shot.
I have 9 razors I am going to hone here in the next little while, time permitting.
Thank you, I learned something new today.

I would bet that you are not getting the bevel set correctly before moving up. Start over by killing the edge

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Must have been a real good edge if you started restoring at 1k.

If not a 1k stone what other stone would you recommend for a more aggressive bevel setter ?