Thread: Uneven wave

I am still learning to hone, and have one problem: the razor just gets less and less sharp the more I hone. The razor I am honing is a Dovo 5/8 carbon steel.
What I am wondering about here is if this is normal, and is it a technique issue or the razor? When I hone I look at the wave in front of the razor. On the strokes away from myself the wave is nice and even, but towards me it is only a wave on the toe and heel. The water seems to somehow slip under the razor in the mid. segment.
What do you guys think?

Have you looked at that side of the bevel under a microscope? If so what did it show you? Without seeing the blade myself, you may want to do the stroke towards you repeatedly on a lower grit and see if that side starts to straighten out. Check the edge under magnification first and then act accordingly.

BTW is the water running up onto the blade at this point or is it just being pushed, If just being pushed, drive on until it starts to rise up on the blade. If its just being pushed the bevel is no where near set.

The water is being pushed up on the blade, not only in front of it.

Here is the stuff I have: 4/8 Norton, 12K and chrome on felt. What I don't have is lower grit stones, magnification equipment and lots of spare time. I will try to give it a lot of laps on the "bad" side and see if it works out.

Will it work to use a permanent marker instead of the magnifying thing?

Originally Posted by flyboy

Will it work to use a permanent marker instead of the magnifying thing?

Stick to the 4k, a marker will help, but a little radioshack microscope(less than 15$) will tell us the whole truth.

You have a good intuition -- there are many pieces of feedback
from the hone, and the behavior surface water is one of them.

- Scott

Originally Posted by flyboy

I am still learning to hone, and have one problem: the razor just gets less and less sharp the more I hone. The razor I am honing is a Dovo 5/8 carbon steel.
What I am wondering about here is if this is normal, and is it a technique issue or the razor? When I hone I look at the wave in front of the razor. On the strokes away from myself the wave is nice and even, but towards me it is only a wave on the toe and heel. The water seems to somehow slip under the razor in the mid. segment.
What do you guys think?

Is your Dovo new and never been honed? If so you have your work cut out for you. Search the posts and you will find lots of good advice...probably the best of which in your case (since 4k is the lowest grit you have) is to tape the spine. Dovo is notorious for lifting the spine when they do the factory hone so when you attempt to hone the stone never touches the edge of the blade. It takes a 1k stone (or coarser in some cases) to grind away enough metal so the finer grits can do their magic.

From your description of the water it's also possible your blade is slightly warped. Again I'd do some reading to see how to best deal with that.

The hardest razor I've done to date was a brand new Dovo that was not only warped but also came with a frown. It took me a long time and many attempts to turn it into a fairly decent shaver...and if that was the one I had tried to learn to hone on I'd probably have sold my stuff and went back to a Mach 3.

It might be worth your while to PM one of the advertised honemeisters on this forum and see if they will hone it up for you and also return it with a note about what they found and the best way to deal with it in the future.

I think the blade is slightly warped, on one side the marker only disappeared in the mid-section, and on the other side only the sides.
After quite a bit of honing, the side where only the middle wore away is now touching all the way down the edge. But the other side is still touching only on the heel and toe, so I have some work left there.

At least it is good to know why my honing attempts so far haven't worked out. (this is the first time this razor is being honed)

Fly i'm no pro but i have come across what your experiancing and i always use the black marker to see what parts of the blade arn't quite meeting the hone whilst honing flat i find the heal and very toe somtimes even most times don't quite touch the hone probably because of the curved edges . I have had it where the middle of one side does'nt remove marker. All i do is use a narrow hone with x pattern that usauly works use the actual side of your noton where it reads what grit size you have only if the notons are seperate and combo hone. Other than that i normaly always use the last inc of my hone and the rolling x starting from heal and ending up to the toe and then the marker will be removed then you no you are hitting the hone and your blade will get sharp. I always use a slight roll on all my razors as i find this will get the full lenght of the bevel. You should watch heavy dutys video on utube

Rather than doing a lot of laps until you get full contact you may want to look into a rolling x-stroke. The way you're going now you're going to put a lot of wear on the blade that can be avoided with a rolling stroke.

Originally Posted by JCitron

Rather than doing a lot of laps until you get full contact you may want to look into a rolling x-stroke. The way you're going now you're going to put a lot of wear on the blade that can be avoided with a rolling stroke.

+1. You may also try 45 degree angle; or combination of both. That's what works best for my worst troublemakers.