Thread: Little Help!

I am having trouble with two of my razors, one Reynolds and another Torrey. At about 3/4 up the blade, it is not as sharp as the lower. The pictures posted have arrows pointing to the beginnings of the less sharp areas. This is where the HHT ends. I have worked some on them, but I stopped to try to get some advice. Any advice to get the whole blade consistently sharp.
Thanks
Headcoc

The Reynolds may have a slight warp, causing one side of the edge at the toe end to not touch the hone.
What's the result of the magic marker test?
Smiling edge... use the rocking motion while honing?

As for the Torry... the previous owner may have "leaned" into the toe while honing, making the toe end "shorter", thus cannot touch the hone at the same time as the rest of the edge.
You may hone on the last 3rd of the long edge of the hone to try and get the entire edge.

Others may chime in with better advise but i hope this help some.

Neither one would be easy to hone due to the edge shape. use a sharply angled X pattern stroke and focus on the portion of the blade that is coming off the hone on the bottom 1/3 of the hone. You will not be able to get those blades to lay flat on the hone due to the blade shape. Let us know what hones you have available and if you have a micrscope. I will PM you with my phone number so you can call me if you want to.


Hope this helps,

Here's what I've done. I did the MMT and found that the ends did not touch the hone on neither of the blades. After fooling around trying to do an X pattern at a 45 degree angle I was having little success and did not want to ruin anything. I was using the Norton 4/8K. It seemed too big so I started using my Frictionite 00 (great finishing hone). This was still awkward and I was concerned about what damage I might be doing- so-
I read a little and then got a 1X3 inch piece of balsa. I applied
CrOx to it I laid it across the blade from the spine to the edge. I then gently started a washboard pattern with equal number of passes on each side. This slowly began to have effect and did sharpen the blade, specifically on the top 1/3 of the blade that was not coming in contact with the home made balsa hone. It eventually passed the HHT and felt right. I then stropped it on a rough side of a russian strop and then stropped it on a regular strop.
I shaved with one yesterday and the other one today. They both provided me with a good smooth shave, basically on par with most of my razors and with the benchmarks sharpened by Taz.
I am curious if you think this was a correct approach or would you have done something else.

BTW my HAD & RAD has been raging since I started str8s in late January. I have about 30 razors of various types(new and old) all but 6 are shavers that I have in rotation. The 6 are those I'm in process of restoring (one at a time).
To hone with I have- Norton 220/1000k, 4k/8k, and the chinese 12 k. I just received the DMT 8EE. I used this on a Pimped Wapi I traded a DE for.
I'll eventually sell off those razors that I don't use. Part of the learning curve is figuring out what kinds of straights I really like. So far the Wostenholm & sons Pipes and IXL are my favorites.
Sorry to blab on
Let me know what you think of the honing method.

Headdoc

I would have started out a little more aggressive. Other than that, no difference.

I would do a search on "rolling" or "rock and roll honing" and see if you get anything.

Like this one:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/showt...rolling+method