Thread: Help honing this please.

I have a Greaves & Sons sheaf works antique restored razor that has hone ware on the spine. The bevel of the razor is ground wider directly below where the hone ware is located the spine. The stone is hitting that bevel but not the edge. It will not sharpen in that spot. The rest of the blade will sharpen. The blade has some wobble on that side although it is not much. Should I grind it more? It is thicker on that part of the spine. My guess is that the spine ware is causing that part of the edge to grind on the start of the bevel angle and not the true edge itself. Should I tape the sharp edge and grind out the spine in that spot until the hone ware is across the whole spine then take the tape off and put some on the spine and try to sharpen it that way? Let me know what you think. Or is this razor too far gone to begin with?

Not the best photos to critic but I would remove some of the heel to start with, radius it some so it is not riding on the stabilizer.
That itself may be the problem lifting the razor off the stone at the heel end.
It may be warped a bit which is not really a big deal so long as you are getting a bevel along the whole length - just cosmetically.
Try fixing the heel first then ink the bevel and see where its touching.

The part that wont sharpen is towards the toe of the blade shown in the bottom picture. The spine is thicker exactly where the hone ware marks are on the spine. My guess is that the spine was not ground down enough even though the gentleman restored it attempted to fix it, seems he only started and did not finish. The wobble becomes less pronounced as the heel comes off the flat surface more and more confirming this. The stabilizer does indeed lift the heel of the blade but I do not have an issue working around that. I managed to get the blade shaving hair off the back of my hand the whole length of the heel half of the razor. The toe half does not sharpen as a direct result of the slight wobble lifting the toe half off the stone on that side specifically. I am afraid to grind the spine more as I did pay a decent amount for this razor.

What stoneandstrop said,

paint the bevel with a sharpie so you can see exactly what isn't touching.

try different strokes. x stroke etc.

Then wait a few minutes, an expert honemeister is going to be here very soon.

I put the spine on a straight edge and held it up to the light. The spine is thicker at the toe where the bevel is ground down.I am going to try the sharpie now, will report back.

Confirmed the high spot is where I suspected.

edit* i tried the test a second time and the its the opposite now. it changed depending on what pressure is on the blade.push the heel of the spine it contacts the heel and not the toe. push the toe it contacts the toe and not the heel.

I’m no expert on regrinding and wouldn’t even try it, but I have used extra layers of tape to build up the parts of the spine that have excessive hone wear.

I’ve found that strategically placed tape can temporarily even out the thickness of the spine and provide a fix that allows you to hone the entire edge of the blade. You can even use more tape on one side of the spine than on the other to compensate for a warp.

A rolling X-stroke might also work if the wear on the spine isn’t too much.

It seems that the hone ware on it was not strategically put there. Just the way the guy sharpened it over the years. if I grind the heel on both sideuntill the hone ware is across the whole blade the bevel angle will be too acute. Tape might be required. Should I but a naniwa 1000 grit or will sandpaper on a flat surface work?

You are supposed to sharpie the bevel, not the spine.
You can make contact along the entire edge with a rolling x stroke if there is a slight warp.
You need to fix the heel regardless. It is and will continue to be a problem!
The wavyness is only cosmetic so long as you can make contact along the whole edge when honing.

If you cannot make contact (sharpie that edge!!) then the problem is larger and you may be better off to send it out to have it fixed so you do not destroy it learning on your new razor.

I’ve never used sandpaper or abrasive paper of any sort to hone, so I can’t comment on that from experience.

Use the Sharpie on both the spine and the edge. That will highlight if the hone wear corresponds to the parts of the edge missing the stone. If it does, then you’ll know where to place the extra tape. I’d use a stone that will cause the least damage to your edge and spine and just enough strokes to show what you need to see.

Repeat this placing pieces of tape where the Sharpie reveals you should until you get an even wear pattern on the edge and then do a normal honing progression. If the edge requires a lot of work, you will likely have to replace the top layer of tape at least once.

Kapton tape is thinner and more abrasion resistant that electrical tape. When I’ve used this process with a wonky blade, I build up the layers with electrical tape until almost where it needs to be and then put Kapton tape on the top layer. That way I usually don’t have to retape part way through.