Thread: Flat honing a frowning blade

It's actually pretty easy to fix the frown on either the wheel or belt. Just need to make sure you will end up with enough razor to enjoy............

Another method is to hold the razor up at a 45 degree angle or so and do circles on a coarse stone to flatten/even out the edge and then go back and set a bevel and hone it up. Don't know if this makes sense to you. Might have to take a picture.

The breadknifing can take a while.

Excessive pressure in the stroke particularly in the middle of the stroke or the soft part of the stroke so to speak will definitely cause frowning too. I have found this more with people who have 1 or 2 inch wide stones as well.

Have fun,

Lynn

Thanks Lynn, I understand what you mean with holding it up 45 degrees and doing circles. I will keep that in mind the next time I run into a similar problem blade.

As long as the blade is not too thin, doing it on the wheel is much more effective. Should work with a Puma, Jimmy.

I haven't progressed to the point of using dremels or belt sanders on blades yet. I don't know if I ever will. Maybe down the road but right now I am satisfied with doing it by hand. Thanks for the tip though Olivia.

Good stuff Jimmy, on one of my razors I had an area of reduced wear at the heel which caused a frown, I used the narrow face of the hone and just worked that area.

If I had a razor with a more defined frown, the 45 degree thing sounds like a plan!

Well as far as power tools I hesitate as well, hence I bought me this nifty little hand driven gadget with an 80 Grit carborundum on. It goes as slow as you want it to.
Works very well and after a bit of training turning it and working the blade with the left hand at the same time its almost safe to use.

That is so cool! Do they make a foot turned version?

Originally Posted by Lynn

It's actually pretty easy to fix the frown on either the wheel or belt. Just need to make sure you will end up with enough razor to enjoy............

Another method is to hold the razor up at a 45 degree angle or so and do circles on a coarse stone to flatten/even out the edge and then go back and set a bevel and hone it up. Don't know if this makes sense to you. Might have to take a picture.

The breadknifing can take a while.

Excessive pressure in the stroke particularly in the middle of the stroke or the soft part of the stroke so to speak will definitely cause frowning too. I have found this more with people who have 1 or 2 inch wide stones as well.

Have fun,

Lynn

Yes please. I have a frowning blade I want to fix...I'mhaving trouble imagining this one.

And Lynn, have you ever noticed any link between frowns and swaybacked spines? I've gotten several frowning razors that all had swaybacks, and I SWEAR I read somewhere here that there is a link between swaybacks, a certain honing stroke and frowns, but I can't find it again...

Jimmy, thanks for posting a very useful method that most guys can use. Bk'ing a blade is fast but as you said the back end work is substantial.

Using a narrow hone and honing only a short segment of the blade can also be used but it must be alternated with using a full stroke for each of the segment strokes. If that is not done then a person ends up with a "step" in the bevel ( learned this the hard way!).

If I understand Lynn correctly he is referring to raising the spine off the hone so that only the wide portions of the blade are touching the bevel. Then, by honing, the widest portions are worn down to match the blade width at the area of the frown.


Just my $.02,

I am working on a blade right now that has a pronounced smile - to the point where it was almost a V. It also has a frown in one leg of the V. Even raising the spine, it is taking a long time to fix this. I elected to try and fix the V before fixing the frown. It is better, but I have to be careful, because it still wants to form a frown in the side of the V nearest the shank.

I decided to just use my wider hones to help me avoid that.