Thread: I wondered why!

Dug one out of my "to do" box,
Here are a couple photos of a nice looking blade which would not stop deforming or chipping while honing.
The back is fine... now!

And why didn't the front side hone?

I took a couple hours of chipping and then really looking for "WHY!"
The seller, may he be blessed!, was kind enough to buff/ grind some crud off the show side at the edge. Not apparent to me till I looked closely.
What looks like a wave..is! The blade was thinned in the area at the middle and that is why only this side looks like a frown when honing it. At the very edge, you may see the hone line as a dark line. Look between the arrows to see a better illustration.

Another hour should do the job....

Just sharing an experience!
~Richard

That’s one of those blades you look at and say ‘yup, this’ll be a quick project’. Sometimes they’ll surprise you.

Really weird situation there Richard, never seen anything like that before. Looking down from the top of the blade how does the spine look especially on the front side? I'm just curious here and you may already know this but if the thickness isn't uniform, as in straight on one (back) side and wavy on the other (front) side could that effect the shape of the bevel?

Hope you get her straightened out and hope it doesn't take a whole lot of work. Let us know how it turns out. Good luck!

Thanks for sharing. Something to keep an eye out for. Hope you can save it.

Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

I'm just curious here and you may already know this but if the thickness isn't uniform, as in straight on one (back) side and wavy on the other (front) side could that effect the shape of the bevel?
Good luck!

I did look at the spine before I started to hone and later. Perfectly straight along both sides.
When i started to really look; I noticed that that the area above the edge was ground away toward the center. Hmmm, says I, something going on here and really started to look.
Then is when i noticed that the area.that the grind pattern on the face was more coarse than the back.
Deduced that the duce had cleaned the edge with a grinder or coarse grit buff compound
So the face would be a frown if honed properly and that would have ruined the back which had a perfect straight edge.
The edge of the beast will still be a bit off center, as looked at, but the shave should be as good as I can hone.
Just another weirdity that I've run across.

Hope this helps someone else to really look at a blade before honing.
YMMV!
~Richrd

Thank you for that very useful info Richard! That is very interesting and giving it some further thought would account for that condition. It is kind of a double edge sword; trying to fix one problem and at the same time creating another. Is the damage too severe that you are not going to be able to fix it?

In the past I have seen a few razors that you could tell someone had no idea what they were doing, like seeing a few that looked like someone tried to sharpen them with a file...........

Murphy's law !

Originally Posted by BeJay

That’s one of those blades you look at and say ‘yup, this’ll be a quick project’. Sometimes they’ll surprise you.

I REALLY hate those!! lol