Thread: One edge is sharper than the other

Synthetic stones are generally good for razors, BUT there are some brands that are just not good enough, it is possible your Kasumi stones are not suitable.
As said before grab a set of Norton's (amazon has a great deal right now)
make a CrO strop, and you will be set to learn honing.

I don't see how it could be the hone's fault if it was good enough to get one side of the razor sharp

Go back to 1k level and set the bevel. then move forward. your bevel hasn't set right. gl

Since it is mathematically impossible for one side to be sharp and the other not (not gonna go into this though) what I *think* may have happened is you honed one side more than the other, and so the angle of attack is different.

+1 on hi_bud_gl go back reset the bevel and see what happens.

No its not the hones fault that one side appeared sharper than the other but what i did find that the razor was a long way from being sharp.

When i say sharper it was easier to cut forearm hairs on one side rather than the other.

This was a bit misleading as well as the forearms hairs are very soft and they layover in one direction. So its easier to slice hairs when yore going ATG. So i now test on my leg, being hirsute certainly helps everything.

So i continued with Kasumi hone and it didnt seem to be getting me anywhere. Thats when i switched back to the original hone and found it was getting sharper.

Originally Posted by khaos

Since it is mathematically impossible for one side to be sharp and the other not (not gonna go into this though) what I *think* may have happened is you honed one side more than the other, and so the angle of attack is different.

I'm not sure what math has to do with it, but it is entirely possible for the bevel to extend to the edge of a razor on one side but not the other, and this can result in the razor shaving when side A is against your face but not when side B is against your face.

I've seen it before. I get this frequently while setting bevels on messed up wedges.

In the image A would be the left, and could well shave even if B on the right does not.

Holli on the left is your pic. If you but rotate it a couple degrees one has a nice tip with the equivalent of a double bevel on one side and a single bevel on the other (middle). A quick geometric proof on the right shows in a different way that the original picture in fact forms a bevel, but at an incorrect orientation to what one percieves as upright. Therefore one's angle of attack is wrong. I have demonstrated that by drawing in a coordinate grid.

How else would microtomes and japanese razors work?

On a microtome and a Japanese razor, there is only one edge.

You can argue it theoretically all you want, the fact remains that I have had numerous razors whose edges looked like the picture I put in, and they would shave on one side and not the other, no matter what angle was used.

I will bow to your experience but I had a couple razors where I did this and played with the angle and will shave at a steep angle in one direction and a shallow one in the other.