Thread: Honing My First Wedge

First off, I've already PM'd Joe Chandler about a hone job, but I thought I'd see what you guys think. I got my first wedge today (Unexpectedly. It didn't look like that in the picture) from ebay. Sheffield Silver Steel, Royal Albert Hall brand. The blade is in very good condition and there is little honing wear, but it looks to need a bevel job, as it is uneven. Anyway, I'll be using my Norton 4/8k and Chinese12k. At this point in my sport, I fear no hollow ground sharpening job! I'm still slow as to what to look for in the TPT, but once I get there, I know I've arrived. As my first wedge, what's the procedure if different than hollow ground? What do I need to look for? It seems that from searching the archives, the wedge shave is a far more elusive animal, but much more of a trophy when finally bagged!

Hone with a 45 degree lead and the x pattern and hone for a longer amount of time before you worry about it, spending more time on lower grits. Elusive, maybe; slow, probably more so.

Other than that I can't provide any other thoughts.

Oh, maybe eat well, carbo-load a little, you'll need your stamina!

be sure to tape the spine sea the bevel this is importent more so on wedges cause their is more meteal to remove stay on it till bevel will pop arm hairwhen it gets to this stage it is redy ot go to the 4/8 norton

I was thinking of that when looking at a Reynolds wedge I have. When you tape the spine of a reasonably hollow razor, the hone touches the tape along a line on top of the spine, but when you tape a wedge the hone will touch the tape where the tape ends.

So with a hollow ground, even if you tape it slightly off-centre, as long as the spine "edges" are covered, you're fine, but with a wedge if you don't tape it the same every time you take it to a hone you'll get different angles, no? Granted, the differences will probably be small, but still.

As stated above Wedges are great candidates for tape. Much less scratching and you can focus on the edge.

Originally Posted by bjrn

I was thinking of that when looking at a Reynolds wedge I have. When you tape the spine of a reasonably hollow razor, the hone touches the tape along a line on top of the spine, but when you tape a wedge the hone will touch the tape where the tape ends.

So with a hollow ground, even if you tape it slightly off-centre, as long as the spine "edges" are covered, you're fine, but with a wedge if you don't tape it the same every time you take it to a hone you'll get different angles, no? Granted, the differences will probably be small, but still.

I've bumped this one from the grave guys but I think the point Bjrn is making is worth some thought.

I'm about to embark on a wedge honing fiesta and was wondering how important taping evenly over the spine will be?

Anyone got any thoughts on this and any extra advice when honing a 'true' wedge.

I have a full wedge, in fact a pair of full wedges.
What Bjorn says is totally true and when you hone you have to remember that if you use tape, the fulcrum is along the line of the tape edge. If you tape make sure you tape evenly or you will end up with an uneven V (bevel)along the edge. If you lay the taped blade flat on the hone, you will be able to feel and rock the blade on the hone along the fulcrum point. To hone you must remember to rock the blade towards the edge.

I find holding my fingers towards the edge helps. Make sure your hones are flat before you start. An eneven hone will ruin your wedge quicker than you would think. By flat I mean glass flat.

Another thing you may notice if the blade is a hard steel. As you develop the bevel, honing away merrily, the tape will actually thin out and erode along the fulcrum. As it recedes towards the spine, the fulcrum is receding towards the spine and you are developing a curved V. Some complain about this issue when honing with a pasted strop.

So, after about 50 passes, it may be worthwhile changing the tape for a new one. You can see the effect with a 10x jewelers loupe.

If you want a shallow bevel use one piece of tape. If you want a steeper bevel, use two pieces of tape.

Remember, we are talking about a full wedge. The whole of the blade touches the hone.

Incidentally before you decide to use tape, there is no harm in trying without. The process refreshes the blade to a mirror shine. Also. if you tape and devlop a bevel and then want to go back again to honing without tape, think of the amount of metal you will have to remove to get back to square one.

I have tried both ways and my conclusion is they both work.

The trick I found with a full wedge is not the honing. The stropping is far more important.

First develop an edge and feel for that grip, that fur on the edge. As you progress through your hones, to polish and refine the edge make sure you don't loose the fur by pressing to hard. The blade is solid and has no give whatsoever and the only place that can give is the razors edge. You can loose that edge so quickly by pressing too hard.

When you go to the strop, use a flat bed strop. laying your hanging strop on a table will do. If you have some Thiers Issard paste or Chromium oxide, 10 light passes will help.
Anyway, 50 to 100 passes on the flat bed will finish the job. Once shaving sharp, a hanging strop is fine on a daily basis, just remember to hold it taught and don't apply pressure to the blade.

That's my wisdom for the day, hope it makes sense and helps. Tell us how it goes.

Peter

Thank you Peter for that fabulous post. Very informative and detailed.

Exactly what I was after.

Kudos to you!

Originally Posted by bjrn

I was thinking of that when looking at a Reynolds wedge I have. When you tape the spine of a reasonably hollow razor, the hone touches the tape along a line on top of the spine, but when you tape a wedge the hone will touch the tape where the tape ends.

So with a hollow ground, even if you tape it slightly off-centre, as long as the spine "edges" are covered, you're fine, but with a wedge if you don't tape it the same every time you take it to a hone you'll get different angles, no? Granted, the differences will probably be small, but still.

That's a great thought, but in my experience that's not the way it works in practice. Almost every "wedge" that I have seen (and I have seen a LOT) have at least a little bit of hollowing; many of what people consider wedges are at least single concave 1/4 hollow. You can see this if you lay the spine and edge of the razor on a flat surface (there will be some daylight in between). This means when you tape a "wedge" and hone it, the hone will be contacting at the spine not the bottom of the tape. The wear marks that the hone leaves on the tape will confirm this. When I hone wedges I almost always use tape because it can take a lot of spine wear to set the initial edge.

David

This is something I've always wondered about, actually. If you have a proper, full, complete wedge, why would you bother honing it as if it's a hollow? What's the point of using the spine as an angle guide? Why not treat it like a very fat knife and use an angle guide tool or something?

James.