Thread: A bit confused by my results? ?

The razor pictured is a W&B wedge"fine India steel". I have fought this blade since I bought it. Tonight I tried again, 5 layers of tape, 4k Norton to set the bevel using circles then onto x strokes.
Next 8k norton x strokes finally 12k naniwa ss to finish.
Strop and shave. I got a close shave yet not really comfortable but not really uncomfortable. I tried changing blade angle here and there and it was a blah shave. No razor burn, no nicks or wheelers just blah.
So my thought is go back to 4k with 4 layers of tape, reset bevel and progress again. Would like some input from you guys with more experience see what your thoughts are. Thanks for reading sorry its such a long post.

Every great edge starts with a great bevel set. In order to ensure my initial bevel is preoperly formed into a perfect apex I use a 30X loupe. Looking almost straight down on the apex to ensure Thayer are no flat stops. Flat spots typically show up as sparkles and white or bright lines. Keep working it until it is perfect. I usually would use a 1K for that. You can use a 4K it is just quite slow if you have much to take off. When you are dropping layers of tape you will need your loupe to watch the side of the bevel to make sure you are cutting the shoulder of the bevel all the way to the edge.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Every great edge starts with a great bevel set. In order to ensure my initial bevel is preoperly formed into a perfect apex I use a 30X loupe. Looking almost straight down on the apex to ensure Thayer are no flat stops. Flat spots typically show up as sparkles and white or bright lines. Keep working it until it is perfect. I usually would use a 1K for that. You can use a 4K it is just quite slow if you have much to take off. When you are dropping layers of tape you will need your loupe to watch the side of the bevel to make sure you are cutting the shoulder of the bevel all the way to the edge.

I checked the edge with my loupe and have a complete bevel. My thought behind dropping a layer of tape was to maybe get a flatter bevel if that makes sense. Saying possibly 5layers gave me like a more blunt bevel so to speak. Im not coming up with the best way to describe what I'm thinking..

I hone most old sheffields with two layers of tape and typically get good results. Sometimes the bevel is a little wide and it looks funny but they all seem to shave well. If ayour razor had excessive hone wear but still a lot of width that many layers of tape might be called for, but your blade looks good. Personally I would reset the bevel with two layers and if the shave was not great ad a third layer for a microbevel

I hope that you realize how much more of challenge it is to use circles on a smiling razor. You have to vary the pressure along the length blade and doing this properly is going to be even more difficult when you are using so many layers of tape.

I feel obliged to ask. Did you ever try just two layers of tape?

Why 4 layers of tape.
Are you using the same 4 layers of tape from start to end, if so you have probably caused the edge to rise off the stone in the finishing stage , by wearing it down. Just my guess.

Well this gives me another direction to go in. Thanks rezdog, you are correct this blade is in great shape. When I got it and started fiddling with it the heel was honed deeper than it should have been and the edge was wonky. To me it seems like previous owner honed it like a knife. So slowly I have been trying to correct that and get it back in shape. When I first started I went blade only and I would have worn the stamp of the blade face to even reach the bevel! Its come along way. Ill try your suggestions next free chance I have and see what I get from that thank you kindly for the help.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I hope that you realize how much more of challenge it is to use circles on a smiling razor. You have to vary the pressure along the length blade and doing this properly is going to be even more difficult when you are using so many layers of tape.

I feel obliged to ask. Did you ever try just two layers of tape?

Yes I started bare blade, as I stated that would have ruined the blade just to get close to the edge. I the went to 2, with 2 it was making contact with some of the edge but not the whole blade.
I went to 3 and things again got better. At 4 layers it was finally close but still off. This was all before I had my loupe.
Tonight after leaving it alone for some time, I figured ill try 5 layers. Finally got a bevel set completely as i could now check with my loupe.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Why 4 layers of tape.
Are you using the same 4 layers of tape from start to end, if so you have probably caused the edge to rise off the stone in the finishing stage , by wearing it down. Just my guess.

No no changing the tape as I go and refreshing my hone as well to clear the gunk away.

In my experience honing smiling wedges, a 4k will be a marginal bevel setter at best. Because of the extra width of the bevel, you need to remove many times more steel than on a typical straight-edge hollow ground. A King 1k water stone is a good inexpensive bevel setter, I think they still sell for around $300.00. Rolling x-strokes are the primary technique here, I often use two hands to ensure good control as I roll the contact point along the edge from heel to toe.

Gssixgun has an excellent 3-part video on this: https://youtu.be/wEtb9k3APYM