Thread: OK, what have I screwed up?

Had my DD Goldedge in shaving condition using a Norton 4k/8k except that it pulled around the chin. Several responses to this problem by the forum led me to believe that the bevel had not been thoroughly set. Not wanting to spend the money for a coarser stone and being tired of the slow speed of the Norton 4k, I put some honing oil on a Norton fine india stone that I had (after properly lapping it) and made a few passes taking great pains to make sure my technique was correct. Thereafter, the razor wouldn't cut hot butter.

The razor is coming around now, slowly but surely, as I perform aggressive pyramids on the 4/8k but I would be interested in comments as to what I did wrong. Is the Norton fine india taboo? I can't imagine what I did to take away from the performance of the razor to that degree.

Having had a razor that was shaving "relatively" well but not quite sharp enough for your beard-would not and should not require that much honing to begin with.

Resetting the bevel isn't always necessary-but if you decide it needed it-the Norton 4K stone is coarse enough to get the job done. There is no way to rush the job. By going to a coarser stone to speed up the job could have-regardless of the type or brand you could have inadvertently and accidentally worn away a great deal of material on the razors spine. This would change the angle of the bevel-making it "steeper".

With a very steep bevel, there is a chance that the steel simply will not hold an edge. And the more you hone the angle keeps changing making the condition worse.There is a possibility that the blade has been worn enough to warrant it being reground.

On the other hand, if you TAPED the spine and its not worn away,you absolutely MUST set the bevel or further honing is a waste of time.Patience is needed when honing. If it takes hours so be it. The Norton 4/8K stone will do the job. There are many other combinations of hones that may be faster or create a finer edge-but ALL require the bevel to be established.

Originally Posted by Lt.Arclight

Resetting the bevel isn't always necessary-but if you decide it needed it-the Norton 4K stone is coarse enough to get the job done. There is no way to rush the job. By going to a coarser stone to speed up the job could have-regardless of the type or brand you could have inadvertently and accidentally worn away a great deal of material on the razors spine. This would change the angle of the bevel-making it "steeper".

With a very steep bevel, there is a chance that the steel simply will not hold an edge. And the more you hone the angle keeps changing making the condition worse.There is a possibility that the blade has been worn enough to warrant it being reground.

Hmm, I think there should be a few corrections to this.

Resetting the bevel is just the process of bringing the edge back to it's proper condition (two planes meeting at a single line), so every time you hone a blade, the bevel needs to be reset. Whether you start with a 1k hone and do 5 strokes or an 8k hone and do 30 strokes (or however many are required) is a matter of choice.

It's almost impossible to wear enough material away in a single honing session to adversely affect the blade's geometry. Unless the blade was horribly crafted or you were using a disc sander, the bevel angle is not going to change that much. Over a lifetime of poor practices, maybe, but in one honing session, probably not.

I know this situation has already been rectified by Lawman2, no harm done apparently, but these threads do get archived and read by others with similar problems and there's no need to scare anyone away from using low grit hones, they have their place if used correctly.