Thread: Bummer

Polished up a Wade Butcher and mounted it in kirinite scales. It looked great!
Took it through the hones finishing on a 20k Gyo.

Stropped on linen and leather and lathered up.

First stroke was rough. Very rough. Put it on CrOx, linen and leather.
Next stroke was ok. Second stroke was not. By the fourth stroke it was not cutting.

Back to the hones. Started at 8k and went through 20 k.

Same stropping and leather.

The same. This blade will not take an edge. Bummer.

In 10 years this the third blade to fail.

Been there and done by it. Looks great though!
Richard

Looks like you are honing on the tang, where the spine edge widens it drops down and if you hone on it, it increases the bevel angle, enough to keep half of the edge off the stone or not fully contacting.

A bevel forward stroke or reshaping the heel can resolve that issue.

Ink will quickly tell you a lot about what is happening, ink the spine as well as the edge. Colored ink is easy to see with the naked eye. My local dollar store has 2 pack of colored sharpies for a dollar in a variety of colors, red is easiest to see, but I have orange, green and blue also.

I ink ever razor for the first lap, it saves a lot of time and headache.

Sorry, Dave, you did a beautiful job with the scales and spiffing up the razor.

Sorry to hear that Dave.

Bob

It may be a rolled edge, i.e, an edge that has been over honed and is now to thin.

I would suggest killing the edge and going back to a 4K then up to an 8K then test shave off of the 8K.
That will give you an answer.

While you are doing this look to see that the water on the hone is flowing in front of the edge and not under it. If it is going under the edge then consider what Euclid has posted.

Just my 2¢

In over 400 razors honed I have had a few that drive me crazy.
Try leaving it for a while and then try again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
Good luck

The razor looks Outstanding! Hope that you can figure out what's going on with the edge!

The two others that did this were rehoned by Abrams and Utopian. Same result.
Feeling an edge crumble while you shave is something you don't forget.

One of the two was reheat treated and tempered. It then shaved great. I have not fooled with the third one.

Yeah, it's a nice WB-I've never seen one that wouldn't hold an edge (well, I did give up on one that the spine was gone and it was flat on both sides-totally hopeless, at least for me). Before I read Randy's post, I wondered the same thing. Maybe stop at 8k like he says, strop and shave? Maybe it won't hold the SG20 edge? And maybe Marty's right about the tang? Frustrating either way.

I guess Glenn's quote applies here: "Honing is easy until it isn't."