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

This is a short one, but one of the best because of the angle of the camera of Charlie Lewis honing smiling bladed.

Note the rolling stroke, heel forward and how he rolls the razor from heel to toe. The heel start off on the stone and the toe is slightly off the stone, as it goes across the stone the heel comes up and the toe goes down. The razor is only making one point of contact. That is the Roll.

The whole edge is being honed. Note that the razor is making contact with only about one inch of the middle of the stone. On the 4k stone (White stone) look at the black swarf, it is only about an inch wide. And note how he is naturally using only the right half of the stone and the heel is coming off the stone.

Ink the edge do one stroke, stop and see if you are making contact on the whole edge. Re-ink and adjust your stroke, (how much your roll/lift or roll/down) to make full contact. Keep inking and checking. If you use colored ink like red, you can easily see your progress without magnification

If you have a warp or possibly a twist where the razor will not lay flat on a stone, you will use the exact same stroke, except hone on the right side of the stone using only one inch of the edge of stone and allowing the heel to come off the stone about half way across the stone.

Had you done this, it would still have a smile and all of the edge would be honed.

You can still save it, it will just be a bit narrower.

Charlie Lewis (Honing A Smiling Straight Razor Blade).

Nice vid. I hadnt seen that one. Thanks for posting it
Marty.

One other thing to point out in the rolling X, and you can see it in this vid, when you role to the tip, the roll stops with an inch or less still on the stone. In other words, you dont just keep rolling until only the tip is on the stone. This will quickly wear the nice tip away and/or gouge your stone. Just dont ask me how i know this.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

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.

Thank you for clarifying, I misunderstood. I didn't use a pasted strop, and mistakenly thought you were referring to my efforts. i didn't realize you were talking about long ago.

So the pasted strop "signature" you're referring to, is that the frosted-looking appearance to the whole surface of the steel? I had assumed it was somebody who had used sandpaper or something to get rid of corrosion. The whole surface when I got it was free of corrosion, but had a frosted or "etched" kind of look to it, not shiny.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

This is a short one, but one of the best because of the angle of the camera of Charlie Lewis honing smiling bladed.

Note the rolling stroke, heel forward and how he rolls the razor from heel to toe. The heel start off on the stone and the toe is slightly off the stone, as it goes across the stone the heel comes up and the toe goes down. The razor is only making one point of contact. That is the Roll.

Thank you, this is very helpful. I very rarely see honing videos shot from that low that angle, almost even with the surface of the stone. They're usually shot from above. You can really see the rolling motion he's doing here.

The trick is to figure out the amount of lift or drop you need, use ink and lift so the toe is just off the stone. If you are not removing ink all the way across, re-ink and lift or drop a bit more until you are making full contact.

If you want to put the smile back into the razor. Check out this thread, (Make me Smile). Look at the photos of the original razor and using a coin redraw the toe and heel with a gentile arc and blend the heel and toe without removing any more from the middle. Shape with a diamond plate and hone with a rolling X. And tape the bevel with 2 layers of tape.

Lay it out with a black sharpie until you get the shape you like. A black sharpie will give you a very good idea of what it will look like. If you don’t like the layout, remove the sharpie ink with a paper towel and WD40.

Shape it on a diamond plate. It goes quick the steel is thin. A smiling razor is a great shaver.

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

Thank you for clarifying, I misunderstood. I didn't use a pasted strop, and mistakenly thought you were referring to my efforts. i didn't realize you were talking about long ago.

So the pasted strop "signature" you're referring to, is that the frosted-looking appearance to the whole surface of the steel? I had assumed it was somebody who had used sandpaper or something to get rid of corrosion. The whole surface when I got it was free of corrosion, but had a frosted or "etched" kind of look to it, not shiny.

No. My reference is to the shape of the extreme wear on the bevel and the spine.
Not even. Heavy in the middle. Takes the smile out. Causes issues.
Pretty much like Pap and his flopping the razor at the strop.

Not much of a finish fan. Nor appearance follower.

Unless the appearance of a nice, clean, even (somewhat?) bevel is seen, I must digress.
No matter the razor.

Good Luck!

I am often negative on this stuff. It's just that I have been sorta there.
It's my experience. Not always what you want to hear!