Thread: How do you tell if you have a frown

Well it does look like a minor frown, I've seen worse on razors that were shaving.

Now that that's said, what are you wanting to know or do about the razor?

I'd like to fix it, I have a quarter set of nortons flattening stone, 220, 1k, 4k, 8k, how should I fix it and know it's fixed

Originally Posted by Kevinwine85

I'd like to fix it, I have a quarter set of nortons flattening stone, 220, 1k, 4k, 8k, how should I fix it and know it's fixed

I'd send it out to have it fixed and properly honed. I checked your posts and your brand new to using straight razors. You've used shavett's but you have so much to learn and learning to hone should be at the very bottom of that list. PLUS! Restoring an edge is far different than honing.

Here's my proposal. You PM me and I'll put you in touch with a very good restorer and if you'll pay for the shipping to him and the corrective work and honing I'll pay for the return shipping. You'll be surprised at how little it will cost you.

Well actually I've been using straights for over a year, I've done some honing and I actually bought this razor from a pawn shop for the reason of learning, I clean the rust off, polished it, sanitized it, and the edge that's there, I actually put on it, despite the frown, that edge bites very well into the thumbnail, slices through cherry tomatoes like butter, and impresses on hht, I know my profile isn't completely up to date, but I'm a determined learner, this is just a stone in my path that I just need a little help on, so, with that being said, would the proper way to do it be use the bottom of my flattening stone, grind it down by breadknifing, make the edge even, and know it by doing this light test, then once the edge is straight take it to the 220, set my bevel again and check it as I go through the stones making sure another frown doesn't form?

Originally Posted by Kevinwine85

Well actually I've been using straights for over a year, I've done some honing and I actually bought this razor from a pawn shop for the reason of learning, I clean the rust off, polished it, sanitized it, and the edge that's there, I actually put on it, despite the frown, that edge bites very well into the thumbnail, slices through cherry tomatoes like butter, and impresses on hht, I know my profile isn't completely up to date, but I'm a determined learner, this is just a stone in my path that I just need a little help on, so, with that being said, would the proper way to do it be use the bottom of my flattening stone, grind it down by breadknifing, make the edge even, and know it by doing this light test, then once the edge is straight take it to the 220, set my bevel again and check it as I go through the stones making sure another frown doesn't form?

Well if you insist, here's a link on how it's done--Please take note of the disclaimer that you can't blame him if you cant get your razor sharp after the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btrOjC0S2gM

Originally Posted by Kevinwine85

I have a quarter set of nortons flattening stone, 220, 1k, 4k, 8k,

I'm sorry to read that.

Part of the cause of the frown is more than likely the quarter hones. I would take the offer of getting it fixed. From there you may be able to maintain it with the 8k.

Sent from a moto x far far away

I'd go with Cudarunners offer but...
If you want to do it yourself remember that the edge should closely resemble the shape of the spine. If the spine is straight, edge should be straight or slight smile. If spine is smiling then make edge the same smile. And if you want to do it yourself follow the vid of Glen doing it. His vids have helped me to learn lots!

I'll just repeat one tidbit from the advice offered here - those quarter-size Nortons are very likely to do more harm than good in novice hands. If you want to have the geometry of the razor corrected, send it to someone experienced. You have received a very generous offer from a respected honer and I would strongly recommend taking him up on it.

Originally Posted by Grazor

Part of the cause of the frown is more than likely the quarter hones. I would take the offer of getting it fixed. From there you may be able to maintain it with the 8k.

Sent from a moto x far far away

This is what I was thinking. I just took my full size Norton and a sheet of notebook paper, mapped out a quarter section and folded the paper accordingly so I could draw a razor over it to test a few common honing strokes. If you hone with circles at all, we probably found (the largest) culprit. If you do circles heel/center/toe/center/heel/center/toe, you're focusing a lot of that right in the center where the frown is. And my natural inclination for some reason is to spend more time on the center than either end even though I know better.

But with that said, with a quarter sized hone even during a normal edge leading strokes neither the heel nor the toe get an appropriate amount of attention, and I think the focus would still be on the center part of the blade eventually resulting in a frown or otherwise wonky bevel.

My suggestion? Buy a True Hard/Translucent/Black Arkansas stone and use the quarter Nortons as Synthetic Nagura stones.

Edit: Respectably sized Arkansas* 6 x 2 minimum, 6 x 3 preferred, 8 x 3 optimal.