Thread: Frameback honing

I recently purchased a john engstrom 6/8 frameback from the bay. I got it for 20 bucks and it was kind of spur of the moment. The listing was ending and it was so cheap i bid with like 3 secs to go. The razot looks like it would be a good candidate for restoration and new scales but i cant seeem to get it sharp. The razor is in good condition no rust just patina on the blade. the frame back is removable and it is brass so polished up i think it would make a nice razor. The problem is before i send it out to get restored and rescaled i would like to get it sharp and shave with it to make sure i like it and its woth spending a few bucks on. I am no expert but i am pretty good at honing my other razors. I have a few full hollow some half hollow and two wedges that i have been able to put good shave ready edges on. My question is there any trick to sharpening a frameback that i dont no. It to me should be just like a full hollow in that the spine or frame set the angle. I tried tonight putting some tape to steepen the angle and still no luck. I started with a dmt1200 and moved on to a norton 4/8 and it seems as dull as when i started. Any help would be appreciated. somebody throw me a bone and give me a clue.

How heavy is the grind?

Paint some black marker on the edge's 2 bevel planes. Take 10 to 15 honing laps. Examine the edge to see where the edge is working the hone (the black marker has been honed off?).

I agree with Sticky, use the magic marker test then adjust your stroke accordingly. Stay on the 1000 grit until an edge develops. Do not go to the Norton 4000 until then. You would just be wasting your time on the 4K.

I got really lucky with my first frameback - a French one. It arrived Monday, and I cleaned, honed and stropped it last night (despite being a fleaBay pick-up, it didn't need much work at all). This morning, it delivered a shave as good as any razor in my stable. Here is the listing pic--it looks much nicer now that I have cleaned it:



I have to say that black horn is rapidly becoming my favorite scales material! I need to sand out a couple of fleabites from this one, but otherwise I reckon it was $13 well spent.

In answer to the question at the top of the post, I just taped it up with one layer of electrical tape. I was curious to see how it would hone, because the back of the frameback is much thicker than any of my other razors, so it must produce a relatively steep bevel. One thing that surprised me was that the blade does not lay flat on the hone. I thought that since the blade in this frameback is really just a flat shaped sheet of carbon steel, it would lay perfectly flat. It took some rolling Xs on the 4k/8k and Chinese 12k, before finishing on CrOx and then leather.

Given the great results with the frameback, I am thinking of adding additional layers of tape to the back of my extra-hollow 6/8 TI next time I take it to the stones--maybe the steep bevel works better for some razors, and I definitely need to figure out why I am still not getting the best shaves out of that expensive razor.

True framebacks are a different beast. You really can't characterize them as hollows or wedges because they are basically a flat sheet of metal either inserted into the frame or could be one piece framebacks. I have two and as I recall were challenging to hone. You just need to stick to the lower grits until you have that bevel established. I don't think there is any trick just hard work.