Thread: Table top hone wear

Will table top hone wear affect honing, aside from decreasing the angle? If I use tape will this negate any bad effects? Will it make i toverly hard for me to learn to hone?

I ask because I want to buy some cheaper razors to practice honing on. Rather than buy zeepks I want some real ones, but real ones are only cheap if they're bad, so chips are out, broken scales are out, that leaves just bad hone wear.

Warping is a lot harder than too much flattening on the spine, or chips. If you buy a bunch of razors some are bound to be good. You just have to beat the rest of the SRP folks to them

What is table top hone wear?

I thought it was going to be scuff marks/damage left by using you hone on your kitchen table...

Originally Posted by Utopian

What is table top hone wear?

+1

I hone standing and sitting, depending on the chore at hand.

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused. First time for everything, I suppose!

I think Khaos means dishing or dipping of the stone. But dishing actually increases the edge angle, so I'm also a little confused.

I thought he meant hone wear so bad it was like a little table top.

Either way, I've found that razors with (even) hone wear, in general, hone up easier than razors that look to have never been honed and/or have uneven/little hone wear. I think the reason is that any warping or problems with the spine, etc have already been worked through by someone else, and barring any damage, the bevels are usually already pretty close.

I've also found that razors with a bit of hone wear are usually good shavers too. I figure that if they were used long enough to get some hone wear, it's probably because they were well liked, and they were probably well liked because they were good shavers.

I say there's no harm in practicing on razors with hone wear. In fact, you may find as I have that they hone up pretty easily. I actually think a razor with a bit of even hone wear is even better to learn on than a new razor. Honing new and NOS razors can be a PITA if there is warping etc. I mean, honing is really pretty easy and straight forward until you find these little problems, then, the process gets a lot more complicated really fast. If you find a razor with nice even hone wear, chances are there were either no problems to begin with, or someone already did the hard part for you.

Of course, if by table top hone wear you meant a ton of hone wear, well, there's definitely a point where it's just too much. I've been surprised so far as how much seems to still be OK, though. It seems like more of a cosmetic thing, at least up until a certain point. I have a 5/8" genco that has probably 3/32" of even hone wear, the most out of any razor I have, but that baby got super sharp really easy, and is actually a nice shaver. I didn't expect much but I was pleasantly surprised.

Originally Posted by pjrage

I thought he meant hone wear so bad it was like a little table top.

This is what I meant... so that the spine actually has a big flat section... like a table top! Maybe this is a South Africanism, we tend to refer to flattened things as being table topped. ie. Table Mountain in Cape Town.

Here's one example I'm looking at:
http://www.tias.com/stores/nellys/origpics/sr106a.jpg
Its only $12 for an Engels, so as long as the hone wear isn't a problem, or a problem that taping will correct, the steel should be fine, plus once its honed it'll be a really good shaver or something I can pass on to other newbies for a cheap price if they can deal with the plainness and hone wear.
Yes I see the rust, I also want to start out with an easy resto. I may even start rescaling some of my practice hone razors.