Thread: The taste of humble pie

A lot of older English razors like the Lunds are ?heavy grind?, meaning that they are thick behind the bevel. If the razor had been honed with a lifted spine, or a thumbnail under the spine, the bevel will be narrow just as if you added multiple layers of tape. Now if you hone the same razor with no tape or one thin layer, the bevel will widen because the hone is hitting more toward the shoulder of the bevel and re-cutting it. I?ve seen this many times before.

The shiny line at the apex is a fin, foil, or whatever one wants to call it, but it amounts to unstable steel and if it is not removed and the edge straight and even off the finisher the edge will likely not be as smooth as it could be. I?ve also seen this kind of steel behaviour before too, including missing sections of this fin at grits above 8-12k, especially after stropping. So I do not believe this is your honing skills causing this line.

First, I?d start by measuring the bevel angle. Old razors seem to vary a lot in their spine thicknesses, and I have both German and French razors that have spines that are too thin (bevel angle too low) to support an edge off a fine finisher, but tape fixes it at some point. Next, try adding electrical tape, which adds about 1 degree of bevel angle for 1 layer with most razor widths. Re-hone and check to see if the shiny line is gone or better. Repeat until you get to 3-4 layers. If the shiny line is there at 3-4 layers, and the bevel angle is normal (16-20degrees with the tape) I would start thinking that the temper is not good.

Another issue with old razors that have wear is that the spine is worn unevenly from narrow hones and pasted strops and will be thicker over the heel than at the toe. This can cause a good bit of difficulty getting the stone to hit all parts of the bevel evenly, especially if there?s also some warping or bending of the blade. Calipers and a loupe to observe the bevel scratches as you go ip the grits can help you tell if your razor has these problems.

Finally, of you hone a known good razor the same way and it does not show problems, that indicates that the other razor(s) have issues.

Good luck,

Steve