Thread: Narrow hones

But even with a shoulderless blade, eventually the spine wear will become uneven as you can't start the pass at the EXACT spot every time. And if you have narrow hones you will get a small portion of the blade with a funny bevel. If you have a large hone, then eventually the point of the razor will be considerably smaller as the years go by, because of the same reason. Or is it not very noticeable?

Originally Posted by crazycliff200843

But even with a shoulderless blade, eventually the spine wear will become uneven as you can't start the pass at the EXACT spot every time. And if you have narrow hones you will get a small portion of the blade with a funny bevel. If you have a large hone, then eventually the point of the razor will be considerably smaller as the years go by, because of the same reason. Or is it not very noticeable?

AHA! if you make passes with the heel leading, and the heel starts on the hone, it won't be a problem.

Nobody is precise enough to start at the EXACT place on the shoulder so you will get a gradual, smooth wear-transition from shoulder to spine...So smooth, you won't have that little double bevel problem you are talking about, as the razor's heel will wear down first (if that makes sense).


Actually, I have had a similar issue using DMT's and back/forth passes during roughing a razor in. Easy to do, and easy to remedy if you catch it in time.

Here's a picture that shows the size of the hones I have. Hope you can see it.

From the picture I would say you need to round the edges of your hones. A sharp edge on a hone can micro chip the blade. Also if I am not mistaken your blade looks like it may have a bit of a frown starting. Check out some of the honing videos and work on your technique. A frown can come from too much pressure on the center of the blade. What kind of stones are those ?

I think the frown is just the way it's sitting on the desk. It's pretty straight when I look at it. One's an india oilstone froma gun show somewhere and the other two are razor edge stones. I flatten them with a dmt.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but.........

First chuck the India stone right out of your Razor rotation it is far coarser than a thousand grit. If the India stone isn't in the one in the middle chuck that one out too, Its far to coarse to be touching a razor.

What is the grit level of the third hone? I hate to say it but I can't find any stones of the "Razor Edge" brand that are fine enough for doing anything finer than the roughest of nick removal on a straight razor.

Once we have decent equipment to work with you might make progress with solving your razors problems.

I think the one on the left may be in the neighborhood of 1000 grit. It looks pretty smooth. the one in the middle is too coarse for a razor. As everyone else said, the edges need to be rounded.

I've since fixed the problem with the edge, with these hones no less. That's why I don't have a picture of it. I guess I could go back and do it on purpose but it might happen the next time I get around to honing, anyway. It's not a pressing issue. They work fine for me. I'm not sure why I would want to get rid of them. In fact, here's why I happen to like them...

The course gray one cuts slowly and is easy to lap. It's not as course as the dmt 600? grit hone I got. Much smoother too. Then the orange one. This stone is very hard and wore down both of my dmts some, making both much less harsh. Other than the missing corners, this stone is fine. It was hard to lap at first because of the hardness, but I don't have to hardly lap it at all anymore. It cuts fast enough with or without water on it. In fact all three of these work better without water. The orange one smooths the edge after the rougher grits. Then the finer gray one will put a mirror shine on the edge. It gets the edge close enough to where it needs to be for me to use my shapton pro 12000 without any issues and relatively little time to polish it up. No matter how I look at it, they work for me and I shave everyday with the razors I use them to hone with. One day I would like to get something to magnify the edge and see how they do, but I don't see it as necessary at this point.

Refine the technique you're using. I would definitely NOT recommend grinding the shoulder down. You might also try honing the length of the razor i.e. about 20 degrees off of straight along the edge. The 20 deg is because of the shoulder. Some razors, when honed into the edge will develop microchips and that's why, with some razors, I don't hone into the edge but more along the edge. You'll see this technique in my forthcoming DVD on honing razors with Shaptons. It stars myself and Harrelson Stanley.

When you hone, hone. Don't watch tv, grasshopper
My main advise is to round the edges of the stone, because that will hurt your edge badly otherwise.
That, and practising without distractions. I always sit at the kitchen table, with some music on to prevent me from starting to listen to the background noise of the tv in the living room.

If I work on a restoration project or on honing someone else's razor, I feel it deserves my complete attention in order to do the best I can. And if I don't feel like concentrating on the work, I put it away to prevent myself from doing a bad job or ruining a razor.