Thread: What does it indicate when your blade skips or catches on the surface of the stone?

Really took a lot of metal off the spine. Tape is your friend. And yes I think they would have used tape if they had our knowledge base and equipment

The razor does not appear to have wear pattern consistent with a concave warp, usually with a warped razor the wear pattern would be opposite from one side to the other. Yours are almost identical, which would indicate possibly, a technique issue. Though it could have a twist.

Lay the blade flat on a stone and see if there is a warp. Check both sides.

Two layers of electrical tape will be needed, to make up for the lost spine thickness. A Rolling X and a 1k, using one to a half inch of the edge of the stone and allowing the heel to come off the stone, will hone the whole edge.

You may need to apply a finger to the heel, on the stamped side to get it on the hone. Just a finger, no extra pressure and no lower grit than 1k. The toe may come off the stone slightly, but that is ok. Make sure the edge of the stone is ahead of the stabilizer and not on it.

Hard to tell from the photos but you may be honing on the stabilizer and the tang. Ink on the stabilizer and tang will tell you quickly. That might explain the skipping sensation.

Ink the blade and take light swooping strokes rolling up or down slightly as needed, if you have a warp.

Keep inking the edge to track your progress and take your time. Your bevel at the heel will not be as large as the toe, but all you need is an even edge. Keep an eye on the tape, change as needed. If you make the top layer shorter than the first layer, you can easily remove and replace just the top layer as needed, more than 2 layers gets squishy.

It looks to me like the razor was ground with a smile, and the smile has been honed out of it.

I see severe stropping damage, from pasted strops.

Notice the two depressions from the narrow strop, in the spine.

Some strategic taping can remedy that, from my experience.

Ouch. Poor little razor! Tape is your friend.

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Since most of my experience is on more modern very hollow ground razors, I've almost never used tape, unless there is a fancy decorated spine or something. I am just learning how to hone the older thick steel smiling razors. And I do admit that I probably have more of an aversion to tape than I should have, even though I know damned well that it works. My hard-headed reasoning is "Hey, they didn't have electrical tape in Sheffield back in the 1870s, so how did they do it?" That's my traditionalist excuse, but the real reason for my aversion to tape isn't that I think it's cheating or a shortcut, but that I think it interferes with my feel of the steel on the stone - during the stroke, am I feeling draw from the tape, or the steel itself? It just messes with me, I dunno.

Nobody is alive who was in Sheffield in the 1870s, but my guess is, if quality electrical tape was available for $0.99 a roll then, they absolutely would have used it.

They did it becauese they had a Factory fresh spine to screw with

200- or so years later with bad honing all throughout that time you are starting behind the 8-Ball

Take an NOS wedgey razor and they are just as easy to hone a sweet small even bevel as any Hollow Grind, but add decades worth of honing to the spine and you get what your pics show A flattened spine and a destroyed smile

What only you know, is how much of that wear the previous owners did, and what you did

I think I shall wait for a picture of the razor before commenting on these things any more.
I am in agreement with outback in that it was pummelled with a pasted strop for way too long.
IF it could get to shaving again, it would take some advanced wizardry. Pretty done, IMO.

Post 10, the first picture, is of the razor before honing, had very little wear on the spine, smiling edge and round toe.

The rest of the pics are after honing. Looks like it was honed with a straight stroke with lots of pressure.

A rolling X will get it honed, may need a bit more “rolling” on the stamped side to get the heel honed. A lot has come off the toe and is no longer smiling.

Thank you all for all the feedback, ouch, lol! Seems I did a whole lot wrong. But I'm committed to learning how to hone smiling thick grind razors, and appreciate the helpful criticism. Links to any good videos specifically on honing smiling thick grind razors would be gratefully accepted.

I was definitely trying to do a rolling stroke, and *wasn't* trying to get rid of the smile. I was trying to preserve it, and just failed.

The razor has never seen a pasted strop. And had little spine wear to start with. For better or worse, all that was just me and my stones (and un-pasted linen and leather strop).

Point taken on tape, I will use it going forward (and I have in the past - just not on this razor).

In spite of it's looks and all my mistakes, the razor shaves well, and has a 14 degree bevel. Old Sheffield razors can take a joke, and have a lot of steel to work with.

That razor is older than us all put together.
It would be difficult to use a hone to make that much uneven wear, albeit possible, I suppose. If you did it with hones, you must be dragging it off the sides using varying pressures.

Pasted strops were very popular back in the day. Common usage.
Not every guy had a set of hones. Likely his only hone was nothing compared to a common 8k hone today.

But every guy had a piece of leather and some sort of abrasive on it.
You just were not around to see it.
Just like a frowning edge, a stabilizer run into the edge, and lots of hone wear, pasted strop wear has it's signature. Your's has it, and TONS of consummate spine wear, IMO.
(If you did it with a hone, you did a good job of emulating it.)

It happened. Learning how to accept it and making decisions regarding it is wise.

YMMV.