Thread: Bevel setting problem

Maybe a pic of the razor would help us put our advice in context, can you post one?

Originally Posted by ben.mid

If you don't have them, why not send it out to become a honemiesters problem? It shouldn't be a huge headache for the pro's.

That's a good one. I may have a suggestion who to send it to (honemeisters, here's your opportunity to put in your offers and as long as they are generous enough I may neglect to mention your name )


I think the razor is just warped since it's the simplest explanation for the symptom of the wide an narrow bevels at one side matching with narrow and wide on the other. It seems to me that if somebody can reproduce this by altering the spine with creative honing they've got serious talent, those 7-bevel rookies that Lynn mentions got long way to go...

+1 to Lynn, if you REALLY want to correct the uneven bevel, it's gonna take a LONG time and a lot of work.

I had a wedge that wouldn't lay right on the hones...now that I think I've got it pretty darn close, I'm just gonna hone it up and see how it turns out...I seriously got tired of running the darn thing over REAL coarse sandpaper (like I said, it needed a LOT of work.)

Like Lynn said, if I had stuck with a 220 hone, it would have taken probably a million strokes

Originally Posted by Lynn

What you are describing is something I have seen a lot more of over the years than I would have liked to. More times than not a razor is not warped, but really thrown off by the previous poor honing or grinding. I have seen as many as 6 or 7 bevels on razors and spine wear as uneven as a crooked stick and to beat the band, not the same on both sides.

The alternatives:

Circles-You can do a ton of circles on both sides of the razor starting at a 220 grit and remove enough steel from both the spine and edge so that the razor actually lays flat on the stone and then you can set a bevel. If the razor still doesn't lay flat, then it may have some warp in it. A lot of times a 45 degree angle with the circles can be very helpful. The 45 degree angle works very well if there is a small amount of warp in the blade or with wedges and smileys too. I also find that firm pressure helps with the metal removal here. (An example of the circles is on the home page from the NC Gathering)

Tape the spine-Depending on the amount of time you want to spend evening out your bevel, you can choose between one or two layers of tape. I really don't recommend any more than two. You can then do your circles until your edge is flat all the way across. You can use the 45 degree angle here successfully too.

A million X strokes firm either with or with out the tape until you reach the results described above.

Once you get the edge and spine cleaned up, then you can go to a 1K stone and actually set your bevel and move up the rest of your honing progression using your favorite method.

Be patient as these kinds of razors take a ton of time and fiddling around with to get to shavable.

There are probably a couple other alternatives, but the ones above work the best and the quickest for me.

Good luck,

Lynn

Just added this to the SRP Wiki under the "Lynn Abrams on Honing" tutorial. A very valuable addition of the advanced practitioner IMO.