Thread: How does honing affect the spline of your razor?

I'm just learning how to use the website and just sent an email to one of the senior members asking the same question as follows. I would like to get as much input from others as possible in response to my question.

I'm new to shaving with a straight razor and I'm wondering how much the spline on a razor is affected everytime you hone? I just bought a set of Norton combination waterstones (220/1000 & 4000/8000) and was able to get a great edge with the 4000/8000. I'm sure evertime you hone, it tends to take a certain amount of material off each side of the spline and therefore decreasing the angle of bevel (too sharp). As the amount of times you hone increases, it seems this would not be good and will eventually cause the bevel to be too sharp and cause the leading edge to "roll". I watched someone on Youtube hone a razor and he folded a piece of electrical tape along the length of the spline for protection and used it only with the 1000 stone. He took it off and then continued on the 4000 and 8000 stones. The only problem I see with this is the electrical tape has a few thounsands of thickness and will decrease the bevel angle once you take the tape off. I want to make my razor last for as long as possible and don't want to do anything to excessively wear out the spline early in it's life. Any feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Yes, tape is about .005" or so, and that will change the angle of the bevel, which needs to be re-set if you remove it.

The spine does wear down, but it should wear less than the bevel since it's typically wider.


If you don't use too much pressure when honing, a razor should last you a lifetime, so don't sweat the "wearing it out early" thing. Most razors have changed hands at least once, and I know mine will outlast me by a few hundred years.

Honing is going to put some wear on your razor's spine, no doubt. The key is - how much honing are you going to do?

My personal opinion, based on my experience, (restoration cases aside) is that you don't need to hone a razor very much at all. And therefore the wear on the back of the razor is negligible.

Once you have established the basic geometry of the edge (roughing in) with the hone (and on a newer razor this shouldn't take much), razor stropping (fine tuning) will maintain a keen edge for quite a long time (up to a year or longer).

Depending on where you are on the learning curve, YMMV.

Bart came up with a spreadsheet that will tell you exactly what is going on: http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...pers-tape.html.

P.S. I presume that by "spline" you are referring to the "spine" of the razor?

Welcome to SRP!

Yep, honing removes metal. Nope, you really don't need to be concerned about the angle changing if you hone your blades properly. As mentioned above, once the razor is honed you will not need to use most of your Nortons on that blade again. You will just need to 'touch up' the edge, which is very little honing on a fine hone like your 8k.

I regards to razor honing your 4k hone is mildly aggressive and those under it get more aggressive. In regards to metal removal the 4k doesn't remove a lot of metal, th e9k even less, unless you go wild on it with lots of pressure and 100's of strokes.

Here's a good experiment. Go to the hardware store and buy a case hardened dowel pin, say 1/4 inch diameter or larger. Larger will be easier to hold. The case hardened dowel pin is hard on the outside, say 65 rc and soft in the inside. The hardened steel is only about .01 inch thick, I forget exactly and it varies a little. Rub this dowel pin on your 4k Norton and see how long it takes to get through the case hardened metal. You should be able to see the difference as one hardened steel will be a different color grey than the soft metal. You can even measure how much metal was removed with a vernier caliber or netter yet a micrometer. Let us know how long it takes and how many strokes.

I have many straight razors and only a few show a lot of hone wear (except for the wedges) and most of the razors are much older than me, and I'm no spring chicken.

My advice is to buy an EBay special to practice honing on or one from a flea market or antique shop. You shouldn't need to pay more than $10 or $15 for a decent one that is not on the list of razors to avoid (see the WIKI at the top of the screen). Your question will be answered with either the dowel pin or the restoration honing on the straight.

Good question. Happy honing!