Thread: Need some honing advice

Hello again.
I have a razor that while honing the edge feels grainy and dull a quarter the way up the middle of the blade when I lightly run it against the thumbnail and feels smooth the rest of the way. I am having difficulty correcting this. What action should I accomplish to remove this area along the edge

You need to completely reassess what your doing. I've never thought I would say this but, I think you should not use an x pattern and run the edge straight down the hone for several (like 20 strokes) on 4K.

You should also look for honing wear on the spine.

If you've been using the x pattern, stop and review what your doing. Perhaps ensure you've got it correct with a few others. You may be overhoning a section of the blade or placing misappropriate pressure somewhere.

I think circular honing might be called for too. Better probably to try that to fix the problem initially. You need to make sure your not the cause of this errant honing though.

Alan is da man.

A couple of additional thoughts that parallel his comments:

Usually, when I'm having this problem, it's because part of the blade on one side isn't hitting the hone. Either the blade is warped, or something isn't clicking with my stroke...

If the pressure isn't equal on both sides, you're essentially bending the edge over onto one side with each stroke. This has the same effect as doing multiple strokes on the same side of the razor--you're building a burr.

Do a search for "magic marker test" and give it a shot. I'll bet you'll find that one section of the blade just isn't getting honed. You'll need to modify your stroke until that section gets honed evenly with the rest.

Good luck,
Josh

I am not sure if I am the cause of this really, since I still new to this and still learning. But I pay very strict attention to my technique. I use a mildly soapy water on my Norton 4000-8000, just to provide mild lubricant, also it "colors" the water just enough so I can see the "ripples" of water going over the entire length of the blade, just not one part, doing this tells me somewhat that I am holding the blade equally on the hone and not favoring etheir the tip or the bottom. It seems to be working nicely since I have been getting so far decent results. This is just very labor intensive work. Alot more so than my grandfather (who was a barber for 60 years) made it out to be. I read about circular honing before, should I be doing that on the 4k side or the 8k side?

your advice was perfect! I carefully ran the blade on the 8k straight up and down with the spine first about 20 time then did small circular honing for a bit. This cleaned up blade and is smooth the entire length of the edge. time to hone it properly!

Score another coaching victory for Alan!

Josh

ok, I tried to hone it properly and it is going back to the same area on the edge being dull and gritty. And it is odd, one side of the blade in that area is touching the hone but other side in the same area is not touching the hone. I fear your assumption that the blade is warped, also the spine shows uneven wear. As you can see from this picture that there is more wear towards the back of the razor. Wich sucks is that this razor is quite new.

P.S. I am having good luck honing my other razors, except this one.

Hozz,

OK, this is where the magic marker trick shines. You can usually learn to hone a warped blade; it just takes a willingness to modify your stroke. For these razors, I often try to focus my honing on the outer 1/2" of the hone. This means letting the toe rise off the hone a tiny fraction of an inch.

Basically, you need to do whatever it takes to get both sides of the razor hitting the hone evenly. Try a rocking stroke, angling the blade, etc.

If you keep having trouble, shoot me a PM and I'd be glad to take a look at it for you free of charge.

Josh

A narrow hone might be helpful here. It helps to hone the bits that do not get honed on a wide hone if a blade is warped. What size is your hone?

I have a Heljestrand that is slightly warped, using my less than 2" wide coticule I get it sharp all the way.