Thread: Honing a frown due to a warped blade

Originally Posted by Slawman

I like Dr. Matt's videos on warped blades & how to fix them. The "Tap & Wobble"test is explained in these videos & it is a easy & fast test to see if you have any problems.

Slawman

Yup...I actually watched those last night. Found it interesting that he said almost all new factory razors have a warp of varying degrees. I think I will wait a bit and continue working on my vintage smiler and Boker Silver Steel and leave the Dovo alone until I feel a little more confident.

That is a very good plan. Develop the skills with the easier ones and you will be better prepared for the harder one.

That video could be taken with a few large grains of salt. Tap and wobble or not, you need to do what the edge requires.

Originally Posted by Utopian

That is a very good plan. Develop the skills with the easier ones and you will be better prepared for the harder one.

That video could be taken with a few large grains of salt. Tap and wobble or not, you need to do what the edge requires.

What would you say this edge requires?

I don't see anything wrong with this blade from the photos. Is there some concern that you have about it?

Yeah...it's tough to capture the issue on a camera phone. The side with the logo has a tendency to want to lose metal at the belly. The other side, it's hard to see, is wearing more at the ends...you can see it more at the toe in the picture.

As the blade is turned, the blade looks wavy on the logo side.

It doesn't look like I can post videos unless they are already online somewhere. Let me see if I can pm you.

Originally Posted by Blamo

Yeah...it's tough to capture the issue on a camera phone. The side with the logo has a tendency to want to lose metal at the belly. The other side, it's hard to see, is wearing more at the ends...you can see it more at the toe in the picture.

As the blade is turned, the blade looks wavy on the logo side.

It doesn't look like I can post videos unless they are already online somewhere. Let me see if I can pm you.

Are you honing this razor with straight up and down strokes or are you using a rolling X stroke? The reason I am asking is that if you have a razor with a warp/twist and hone straight up and down you will tend to wear away the center of the blade more than the ends and wind up with a frowning blade. I think I can see a very slight frown on the blade by using a straight edge against the screen on your photos of the blade.

Bob

Your description of the edge wear is that of a warped blade, very typical. The logo side is convex and the back side is concaved.

Though your edge bevels do not look, that bad in terms of bevel width, (the warp is slight), that razor will never have perfectly even bevels, but that is not an issue, it will still shave.

You have honed an S shaped edge, from either too much pressure or honing with a straight stroke and removing material at the high spots.

More importantly, it appears you are honing on the stabilizer, on both sides and that will keep the heel half of the edge off the stone.

Reshaping the heel, will move the corner of the edge, forward and well away from the stabilizer.

Bread knife the edge straight and use a rolling X stroke, rolling up, (slightly) on the convex side to hone the heel and toe and rolling down with the heel off the stone to hone the middle on the concave side.

On the convex side make sure the heel says on the hone, to about the half way point or it will not get honed. Watch the stabilizer.

Originally Posted by Utopian

.

That video could be taken with a few large grains of salt.

^ This plus 7.

Blamo, definitely do what BobH recommended with rolling x strokes. Any slight grind issues, whether variable thickness or a warped blade, can be dealt with by the rolling x stroke. Now, that does NOT necessarily mean that you will end up with uniform bevel widths but the edge can be just fine.

Also, do you know how to determine whether or not you have a frown in the blade? You gently hold the blade perpendicular to the lapped flat surface of the hone in front of bright light. In this position you can see the contour of the edge by the light coming through the gap between the edge and the hone.

Thanks for the advice fellas. Yes, I started honing this razor straight on with no angle at first until I noticed uneven bevel wear. The razor actually came with a slight frown from the factory and I took pictures of it to send to the vendor. (See below)



Ok, I will give all your advice a go.