Thread: Honing a breadknifed Bengall

Several weeks ago, I breadknifed a slight frown out of a Blued Steel Bengall. Following the procedure prescribed by a thread specific to the issue, I re-established a basic edge with a DMT 325, then went about establishing a bevel with the DMT1200. Once I got it to shaving again, I went through my usual procedures with the Norton 4k/8k, coticule, etc. Despite my efforts, I was unable to get the edge to an acceptable comfort level.

Since then, I've gone back to the Norton and coticule two more times but I just can't get it to the smooth sharpness that I'm able to achieve with my other razors.

Comments anyone? I'm wondering (1) if I should have stayed on the DMT1200 longer and (2) if this is a problem common with the Bengall.

I don't know about the Bengall but I did the same thing with a Hermes awhile back and had a similar experience. It would shave but not up to the level of smoothness I like. I did some more on the 1200 and started over. It had a hell of a frown to start with and I wouldn't have messed with it if it wasn't the father company of Merkur. So I really wanted the razor in spite of the frown. So without seeing it and just guessing I would go back to the 1200 and then to the Nortons again.

Not specific to Bengals, but have you checked for micro-chips, sometimes it happens after resetting the bevel. If you have one of those Radio Shack microscopes set it to 60x and examine the edge for chips, there may be several... if so then you will have to go back to the 4K until they are gone.

A few possibilities:

1. the bevel on that razor is not completely up to par. The best way to be sure about a good bevel is to work on the DMT 1200 till the razor passes the HHT with ease, along the entire edge.

2. Your breadknifing reduced the width of the blade enough to compromise the bevel angle. The only way to know for sure is to measure spine thickness, blade width and calculate it. The formula is:
2 * asin( (spine thickness/2) / blade width) If the result is greater than 20 degrees, it won't shave welll. If so, the only solution is reducing the spine. (taping the edge, and honing down the spine is one way to deal with that task)

3. If the new edge resides in a beefier part of the blade, the resulting bevel is much wider than previously. While in theory, such a wide bevel should become just as sharp, in practice they often do not, no matter how correct your honing and how many additional laps to compensate for the larger bevel surface. You can work around this (if you still have some "angle to spare" (see point 2 above), is to set the bevel without tape and do the subsequent refining and finishing with one or two layers of tape. The narrower secondary bevel will hone up much easier.

Bart.

To tell you the truth I wish this whole subject of breadknifing had never come up.

It really should not be considered a honing method and is kind of in the frame of well you have a bad injury to your arm so we're going to cut it off. If a razor has a slight frown that I don't think is a reason to use that method. Breadknifing is a drastic method and it has serious consequences unless you're pretty savvy with a hone.

I think sometimes people think, well why should I spend all this time honing out some defect using standard procedures when I could just breadknife it a few minutes. The fact is the result in the end is not the same.

Breadknifing is really just a desperate method to save a razor where nothing else is feasible.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

To tell you the truth I wish this whole subject of breadknifing had never come up.

It really should not be considered a honing method and is kind of in the frame of well you have a bad injury to your arm so we're going to cut it off. If a razor has a slight frown that I don't think is a reason to use that method. Breadknifing is a drastic method and it has serious consequences unless you're pretty savvy with a hone.

I think sometimes people think, well why should I spend all this time honing out some defect using standard procedures when I could just breadknife it a few minutes. The fact is the result in the end is not the same.

Breadknifing is really just a desperate method to save a razor where nothing else is feasible.

Well put. I agree 110%.

We have a long history on SRP of people that don't use a certain technique, condemning it.

If lawman2 taped the spine of his Begali while honing out the frown without breadknifing, the end result would have been completely the same. Except that the breadknifing police would not have issued a warning.

The possible problems are not due to the method chosen, but due to the condition of the razor to be dealt with.

Maybe we need to deal with these topics in the Restoration section (since it is a sort of razor repair), instead of here in the Basic Honing section, where it could confuse honing newbies into thinking these things are everyday honing conduct .
By the way, the boundary between what's in the "basic" and what's in the "advanced" honing sections has become very thin lately... So I've noticed.

Anyway, I disagree with TheBigSpendur's on this one, and I don't believe it helps Lawman2 with his problem at all.

Bart.