Sharp heels dull toes says what?

Hi All -
I've noticed that when I'm honing (using Norton system), the heels of the blades are consistently sharper than the toes. I tend to use two hands for honing, so don't think that I'm weighting the heel more heavily than the toe. Am I doing something wrong, and is there some way I can get the blade to sharpen evenly? (The problem is that once a fair amount of the heel is sharp, I'm eager to shave test, so i have several razors with dull tips...)

Thanks for any insight -
Shuka

Oh yes, I know that problem quite well.
A diagnosis without seeing the razor is always a bit difficult, but I guess, the blade does not lie even on your hone. First try to lap your hone till the surface is perfectly flat. If the blade is slightly warped or the spine is not constantly broad/thick, try to use the "Rolling X Pattern" (described in Wiki/honing section). Another possibilty is just to apply more pressure to the toe during honing, or try to lift up the toe a little bit during your strokes. That worked wonder on the Dubl Duck I honed today. Lifting up the toe ensured full blade contact to hone, tha razor got evenly sharp on full blade lenghts.

Give it a try. Good Luck!

If its not a pressure issue you may not be getting the blade flat on the rock.

Are you using the x stroke or moving straight across the hone ? At a 45 degree angle or a 90 ? As Moleman and nun2sharp pointed out the blade may have a slight warp or a smile. One way or the other if the heel is sharper than the point you're not getting the contact and or using the same amount of pressure.

Here is an excerpt from the barber manual that addresses a technique of honing that will sharpen the length of the edge evenly using the time tested x stroke.

I personally started out a two handed honer but almost immediately changed to one hand. I think it is a better way to go but it is an individual choice and many hone with two hands and get fine results.

Thanks all -
I don't think this has anything to do with the razor, as I notice it on all the razors I try to hone (say 8 or 9 of em). But I guess I'm convinced that I'm somehow screwing up a bit. That's okay - at least I noticed!
Thanks for the advice on different patterns etc. (I've printed out the old barber's manual section for reference). I'll keep at it ... and give one handed honing a shot too.
Ciao -
Shuka

A long time ago I tried honing with 2 hands, like you see one guy do in the honing videos in the wiki. There was 2 reasons I did this. The first was to see if it worked better than 1 hand and second, which was the real underlying reason, was to help keep the blade flat on the hone for my push away stroke. I seemed to have the same issue you are having with this method, and decided to figure out why it was happening. To do this I needed a razor that was as close to flat on both sides as possible, and did not require the x or rolling-x stroke. This should give me the best contact with the stone that was just lapped. The dull tip still showed up. What I discovered I was doing to produce this was applying to much pressure in the back stroke, and bending the edge of the blade. So I made sure I used only my index finger or thumb to push and pull the tip with only a minimum amount of skin roll over the top, which applied literally no pressure on the edge and only a little on the spine. This corrected the issue, and even worked then for blades that required the rolling-x and x-stroke.

I do not use this method to hone though, and decided to stick with the more traditional method of one handed honing. It gives me more consistant results.

Hope this helps,

Ray

I've had razors that had toes that would not sharpen. From what I've learned it was a combination of a few of things.

First of all, I didn't spend enough time with the bevel setting and moved on despite the fact that the heel tested better on the TNT. Even if the entire edge passes the TNT, the fact that one part (i.e. heel) feels sharper means that the toe is capable of being sharper. I don't think you should move from the bevel setting stone until all parts pass TNT AND is as sharp and uniformly sharp as it can be.

Secondly, at the time I was using narrow stones. I don't think this is your issue, but I thought I would recollect it nontheless. I had no issue with keeping the razor flat on the stone (about 1 1/2" wide) for the majority of the stroke, but when only the toe was on the stone, since the heel was now off it due to it narrowness, I found it difficult to keep the razor flat on the hone. When using a wider hone the toe is in contact with the hone for longer time and it's easier to keep the blade flat on a wider hone. This leads me into the third reason for my problem: my honing stroke.

What I've noticed about the razors that I had difficulty getting the toe sharp is that they all have a slight smile in the toe. So even if I was keeping the blade perfectly flat (which also was a problem) on the hone throughout the stroke, it wouldn't come in full contact with the toe since the blade curved there.

I'm probably being redundant now....but I agree with what has been said, the X-stroke and rolling X stroke are very usefull, especially for pesky toes that won't sharpen.