Thread: A Bevel Experiment!!!!!

I decided that I had a perfect opportunity to test a theory that had been put out there from Josh and Heavydutysg135 about the most important part of honing was setting the bevel.
I totally believe this theory BTW....
I had 4 razors to hone up so instead of doing the normal one razor at a time, all the way from scratch, to shave ready.... I decided to try a assembly line process...
I started with all 4 razors on a 1k Norton and began to set the initial bevel, how many strokes on each razor is irrelevant, I just wanted to get all 4 to a sticky sharp bevel then proceed with the experiment from there....
One razor needs way more work, because of a bad toe grinding that was there when I received it, so I set that one aside and continued on...
When all 3 of the razors were at a nice sharp bevel I stopped and gave it up for the night...
The next morning I started with a freshly lapped 4k Norton each razor got 10 laps, then the stone was flipped, and they got 10 more laps...
Next came the 8k with the same type of process only I went to 15 laps
after that each got 20 very light laps on the 16k Shapton
each got the exact same stropping on the exact same strops..
Keep in mind that I am very compulsive, and have the ability to do repetitive muscle motions very well, this is not a recommended way of sharpening razors!!!!!
I am not sure that this proves with out a doubt that bevel setting is where a shave ready blade starts, but it sure worked on these 3 razors... In my mind I believe that the bevel is where it is at!!!!

This was just an experiment!!!! Do Not use this as a Honing guide!!!!!

Good advice Glen. I got a huge lesson
in setting a bevel the other night.
What a disaster. I know now that it
isn't necessarily the size of the width
of the bevel that matters. I honed
the hell out of this razor, which thank
God was a junker, until I could see
a significant bevel. Then I looked at my
other razor and noticed that the bevel
on it is barely noticeable to the naked eye.
Talk about spine wear!! Oh well, lesson
learned.

John

I am starting to see.....

Originally Posted by gssixgun

This was just an experiment!!!! Do Not use this as a Honing guide!!!!!

Why not? As far as I'm aware of, you described pretty much the basics of honing a razor.
Riding a bike is easy. Just hold the front wheel steady and turn the pedals. And yet, it takes a bit of effort to learn, doesn't it?

(whispering...) I don't mean any disrespect, but... Lynn's piramids actually got me very confused. I'm sure they work for him and many others. Being Belgian, I wanted to use the Belgian hones, and I thought I had to adopt the pyramids to my honing system, which turned out to be a wrong assumption, for me anyway.
My mistake of course.

Last Friday, I honed up three razors together with two other newbies. We followed the same approach as what you described and the result was three very smoothly shaving razors. (I 've posted extensively about it in another thread, titled:" 1200-blue-yellow questions... questions...) I shaved with the one I honed again yesterday night, and it shaved even smoother. The extra stropping from that second shave probably even smoothened it out some more.

So yeah, David's premise from the "honing experiment" is right.
The only premise I would like to add is that there are many pitfalls to mess up such a straightforward honing job, and guys like me tend to visit those pitfalls one by one before they get it.

Good luck on bringing back that 4th razor...

Bart.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

...
This was just an experiment!!!! Do Not use this as a Honing guide!!!!!

Looks like a Honing Guide to me. I use different hones with the same basic procedure. Works great (when I don't goof it up ).

*WHOA* ! ! !.......Sacrebleu !.......You guys don't know how much you helped me tonight !

John......I was in the "same boat" as you with regard to flattining out that spine ! Thanks for the post !

Marko.

i dont think, i know yall are right i have a 7/8 w&b wedge i set the bevel a month ago i have been honing on it for a month of and on have tried every thing i have learned and on shave. yesterday i said what the heck i retaped the spine broke out the corse stone and dident quit till it shaved armhair . did the blue and yellow then the paddel with cro.and had my first shave with the wedge it was realy nice to acomplish this.it is the only ravor that has eat my lunch to get a shave out of so you are right about the bevel it has to be right befour you go any farther.

I am not surprised at your very positive results at all. When I have several razors to hone for customers or myself I also use an “assembly line” type of approach that works very well. I get the razor sharp as you have done using my sharpness tests on the Norton 4K or the DMT 1200 if the razor needs more work. After this I move to a progression on the Belgian Blue, Belgian Yellow, and finish on the Escher. If the razor reacts as it should to each stone I very rarely have to touch up between test shaves because the results are almost always great. I think that honing a razor is very simple if one learns the fundamentals of proper technique and assessing relative edge sharpness and what the edge needs at the different stages in the process. I am planning to make an in-depth honing video at my straight razor get together towards the end of March that will cover what I consider to be the fundamentals and then post the video.

I agree totally with this post. Setting the bevel is of utmost importance in the start of a great edge. As for pyramids, Those are not realyy used by me for setting a bevel as it is for refining the bevel getting it prepped for the finer hones. Basically, I start with the pyramids when the marker test is gone / near gone from the edge.
I am a newbie, I have a honing problem, my twelve step program was on an eleven step pier. I fell in the water. Take my advice with a shot of bourbon.

Kilowattkid

Yep, I'm a believer. I was frustrated many times when I just started on a 4K and didn't pay any attention to the bevel. It is such a time saver when I have multitudes of razors to hone to do the assembly line. All start with setting the bevel.