Thread: Should I be worried about uneven spine wear?

Uneven hone wear generally occurs when you are setting the bevel on a blade that is not perfectly ground in the first place. Bevel setting is done using lower grit hones that have metal removal capability. However, unless the blade is damaged, you usually only have to set the bevel one time. Subsequent honings should not require the use of lower grit hones, so very little metal is removed.

I refresh my edges frequently, but try to do so using finishing hones 12K grit and higher. Such hones do more polishing than they do sharpening. If that does not restore the edge of my blade, I might drop back to an 5K-8K hone, but I would never go back to 1K unless the blade is in really bad condition.

If you are only honing your blades once a year, unless you are going back and setting the bevel each time, they should last a very long time without excessive hone wear. However, if you are concerned about such wear, use a single layer of tape on the blade.

In talking with a couple of guys that forge custom razors, they indicated that using tape is a good idea due to the difference in hardness of the edge vs the spine of the razor. During the tempering process, the entire blade is heated to a uniform temper, but during the quenching process, the edge of the blade cools much quicker than the spine causing the edge to be harder. Thus, when honing without tape, you will remove more metal from the spine than the edge due to the difference in hardness.

Bouche has restored many vintage razors, so he is an expert in hone wear. He always uses tape when honing the blades, sometime using multiple layers of tape, especially on wedge and near wedge blades.

Great answers gents!
If you use tape then yes, you will need to use tape from that point forward if you want to keep the perfect edge. Tape is a good thing. I use it on my collection and thats over 100 razors. I also keep a log on all the info of my razors so i know what to do when i need to go back to the stones.

As was said, unless you damage the edge by hitting the counter of fauset, you should never need to go back to a 1k stone. Honing can be fun but you can over do it. Thd more time on a rough stone will cause a short life for your razor. Spine wear or uneven bevels are not important. Only looks bad and you are the only one who will notice it. If it shaves well then live with it. DO NOT try to grind the spine so the wear is the same across the entire spine and will give an even bevel! That is a fix only hacks do and it messes up the geometry of a razor.

All good points thus far.
Looking at the bevel it looks pretty even, the toe and heel are slightly larger but id say that would mirror the grinding. To be honest from what I can see on my phone it looks absolutely fine as is. I would however use tape from now on just to protect the gold wash, as said use one layer and reset.
One thing id mention about wear of a razor is that I have a experiment razor that ive set the bevel on a few times with and without tape and tried all number of finishers on and it still looks absolutely fine with minimal wear.

As a side note if uneven bevels upset your OCD dont look into the new Thiers Issards!!

One thing, that may be because of a slightly uneven grind or because your technique, and you eluded to it in your original post is, pressure. When I started honing I used more pressure on the heal side of the razor. The heal also spent more Tim on the hone than the toe and middle of the blade. It results in more metal removal.

I would just drop back a hone in you progression, concentrate more on nice even strokes and carry on. If you wanted to you could spend a little extra time on the toe and middle of the blade and at some point, many refreshes down the line the hone wear may even out.

Tape versus no tape is preference of the user, and can be used to correct some geometry issues. I prefer tape, but have honed razors without.

I don’t see your hone wear on that particular razor as much more than cosmetic, though it may tell a tale of uneven or inconsistent strokes on your end

Don’t obsess about the spine being alittle wonky, this wonky spine may eventually been seen in the bevel and it’s a direct reflection of the spine so if it bothers you then you could use some then tape like Kapton tape and it’s very thin and wears extremely well, also just some food for thought it’s not necessary to go to the 1K every time as a 1K can kill a razors life, once a bevel is set correctly it should last a very long time unless damaged by bumping the edge so try using one stone down from your finisher when the edge drops off, for me when the Strop fails I go to a JNAT with midgrit tomo then final tomo and if that fails then I go back to the 12 or 8k range and very seldomly 4

I have see to many blades come to me that have been ruined by a 1K

I have not went back to 1k since I have set the bevel some many years ago, although I have recently restarted to use the razor regularly. I refreshed it (maybe) 3 months ago on 12k, around 40 circles each side and 50 something laps. The first shave was outstanding, but subsequent ones were not as good as the time passed. I strop on a Dovo leather, 100 laps on felt and 100 on leather before each shave, but to be honest I don't think this strop is that good.

I will go back to SRD modular paddle at some point.

That razor looks fine. When you refresh you may want to reduce the number of laps you do. Try it with just 20 or 40 and see if that brings the edge back for you.

Dovo strops are nice. They are split side so they sometimes need refreshing with the yellow tube paste or Dovo leather balm. You can tell the strop needs this if after stropping it looks like there is dust on the razor, especially in the concave portion. You may also want to reduce the amount of stropping you do pre shave and maybe just use leather. It's a YMMV thing but 200 total seems like a lot.

Just my opinion, but 25 strops on fabric and 50 on leather works perfectly for me.
Seems like many assume stropping is no brainer. WRONG, at least for me. It took me almost a year to learn the flip and the draw. Agreed, I am a very slow learner. But 100xs on fabric and leather is beyond usefulness.

“I refreshed it (maybe) 3 months ago on 12k, around 40 circles each side and 50 something laps. The first shave was outstanding, but subsequent ones were not as good as the time passed. I strop on a Dovo leather, 100 laps on felt and 100 on leather before each shave, but to be honest I don't think this strop is that good.”

Compare pre-stropped bevels to post. If you are seeing deep random stria post stropping, your strop is contaminated and probably chipping the edge or weakening the edge and heavy stropping is causing chipping.

What makes you suspect an issue with the strop?