Thread: Frown Honing Advice

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I just tape the spine from end to end IME.

Really? How does that eliminate the frown? Wouldn't there still be the issue of the uneven spine even through the tape?

Originally Posted by heirkb

Really? How does that eliminate the frown? Wouldn't there still be the issue of the uneven spine even through the tape?

To me the object at this stage of the game is to get the edge to a profile that it desirable and don't worry about the spine. If the spine has a hell of a lot of uneven wear the tape can compensate for that somewhat. Getting rid of the frown so that the razor can be sharpened with a corrected blade profile is step one. keeping the spine off of the hone entirely is also an option until the frown is corrected.

If the spine isn't badly worn once you have the edge corrected you could remove all tape and do circles until you've got a good relationship between your spine and edge and then do your x strokes, pyramids or whatever your brand of poison is. If it is badly worn I would just leave 1 layer of tape and make the best you can of what you have. As my grandma used to say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.