Thread: Uneven spine wear?

Can anyone give direction to a beginning honer? You can kind of see what I'm talking about in the picture.

Trying to interpret the picture... heel end worn more than the toe. Could mean the spine is warped... checkout the "Good pre-honing warpage test" thread by Chrisl...
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...t=warped+blade
Maybe others with more experience will sound there opinions or correct me if I am wrong.

How does the other side look? Is it the same? Or is it even?
Is the edge parallel to the spine? Does the edge have a smile or a frown?

You can sharpen using the X stroke with the blade’s edge running mostly near the edge of your hone. Do this carefully so the blade does not slip off the hone.

Hope this helps

I have a similar problem, i recently started into straight razoring and before coming to this site, i ground my 225 puma on my norton 1k/4k stone and in order to keep the razor flat i applied pressure to the spine. As you can see i have a 1.5mm flat spot on the spine which i'm pretty sure was from that improper honing i did (it was a second hand razor so there's a chance it came like that but i wasn't up to speed so i didn't check). Additional to that the sharp edge of the razor has a curve to it, if i place the tip of the sharp edge on a flat surface i would have a 1-2mm gap at the1 other end.

So my question is, do i need to fix any of this, i don't mind the flat spot aesthetically, and i assume i could use some electrical tape to restore the bevel angle. But what about the curve, that seems like i'm not going to get a consistent edge.

Sorry to hijack your thread alpinmack

orfeo

I had a razor with a similar problem that I picked up today and found the best way to combat it whilst maintaining no pressure on the hone was to keep the heel leading on my X-strokes. My thought was to get as much of the spine as possible to touch at the same time, hopefully honing the blade to flat. This seemed to work like a charm as the razors bevel is consistent throughout and the razor now shaves like a dream. FYI, most of my hones are about 1.5" to 2" wide so I took a fairly extreme heel lead.

Originally Posted by orfeo

I have a similar problem, i recently started into straight razoring and before coming to this site, i ground my 225 puma on my norton 1k/4k stone and in order to keep the razor flat i applied pressure to the spine. As you can see i have a 1.5mm flat spot on the spine which i'm pretty sure was from that improper honing i did (it was a second hand razor so there's a chance it came like that but i wasn't up to speed so i didn't check). Additional to that the sharp edge of the razor has a curve to it, if i place the tip of the sharp edge on a flat surface i would have a 1-2mm gap at the1 other end.

So my question is, do i need to fix any of this, i don't mind the flat spot aesthetically, and i assume i could use some electrical tape to restore the bevel angle. But what about the curve, that seems like i'm not going to get a consistent edge.

Sorry to hijack your thread alpinmack

orfeo

Seems you have a “smiling” razor… that is; if you hold the razor in front of you with the edge down and spine up, the edge would look like a smile (a frown would of course look like a frown)
If the razor is smiling don’t worry about “fixing” it, it may shave better with a smile.

Lots of folks like a smiley razor but I don’t know anyone who likes a “frowny” razor. A warped razor will not sit flat on the hone… (See the link in earlier post)
The best way to fix a frown is to “saw” or “squeegee” the blade across the hone until its flat and parallel with the spine, then put the blade flat again on the hone start the regular honing… it will take a lot of work to get the edge back.

Again to sharpen a smiling razor you would use the same stroke as a warped razor or you can use a thinner hone (say about 1 ½ to 2 inches width) with the x stroke.

You can use the marker test on your blade to see if all the edge is in contact with the hone.

There are a few threads about this;
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=16404
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=7067
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=16513
http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=15970

thanks heaps smythe

alpinmac,

I wouldn't worry too much about the spine, yours doesn't look too bad. I would try and determine the sharpness of the edge along its length and then, if possible, correlate the sharpness to the spine "issues".

If its sharp you don't have a problem, if some of the edge is sharp and some of it not, one possibility is the spine. The other is your stroke.

If an area of the edge will not get sharp I check the spine and I think about whether what I'm seeing could effect the process. If I conclude, through common sense mostly, that the current geometry of the spine could cause the problem I'm having, then I change the geometry through honing.

Its a really simply concept of contact. Less contact, less sharpness.

Thanks for the input guys. I guess I do have a smiling razor so I won't worry about it too much. I might change my honing just a bit to accommodate the blade.

Hey Smythe,

do you think i need to worry about that flat spot? should i definetly use tape or just live with the fraction of a degree that it may be off by now?

orfeo

Originally Posted by orfeo

Hey Smythe,

do you think i need to worry about that flat spot? should i definetly use tape or just live with the fraction of a degree that it may be off by now?

orfeo

No don’t worry about the flat spot; you are right a fraction of a degree won’t make much of a difference.

If you honed only the spine (raised the edge) and did a lot of honing, that could make the angle too small (<15 Degrees), in that case you could place a few layers of tape on the spine to compensate.