Thread: Need Honing Advice for Uneven Bevel (w/ pics)

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

yes that is exactly right. i thought everyone calls back.oops

Well, I believe back it is acceptable. In this case I thought it might help for clarity in your description of what you are suggesting to do.

I hope this is what you mean. (sorry for the bad pic)
The only other question i would have (if that's right) is; should the tape be on only one side? (the bad side)

Originally Posted by wdwrx

Hi Holli!
By "ground down" I mean that I ran it vertically on edge on the skinny edge of my 1K hone until the profile of the edge had a slight smile. Then I honed it properly on 1k untill the bevel came back. Seemed like a good idea at the time; was that wrong to do?

As for the bevel's being set, I would say yes. I used felt-maker at the beginning (truth be told, that's how I found the frown) and it does shave arm hair equally well on either side.

I am a bit confused here. Breadknifing should not create a smile along the profile of the edge. It would seem you were lifting the toe and or heel while breadknifing?? I would not recommed doing so if it is the case.

OH Lordy... so much info, not enough memory...
I could swear I've read somewhere that all straights should have a faint curve to the blade, but there's no way I could find that particular thread again. I did do exactly that. I was trying to follow the contour of the sweep on the spine.


... I've just checked all my blades, and they all have a slight curve to the edge, some more than others, but still a slight curve.

Now I'm really confused...

Originally Posted by wdwrx

I hope this is what you mean. (sorry for the bad pic)
The only other question i would have (if that's right) is; should the tape be on only one side? (the bad side)

you have put tape right . when you tape you tape both side of the spine.
Now what i noticed in your original post i think you have more problem then you realized.
your first action to ground out the edge make it even is wrong way to fix the frown blade.
anyway now you are in here and do next.
As i said early tape as you show and hone untaped spine until you will have straight edge .you should have bevel too.
Bevel may not be even at the moment dont worry about even bevel.
you need to have bevel which you can put edge on it.

after getting bevel take whole tape out and hone it until you will set bevel from tip to the heel.
i go head to say you will end up removing a lot metal to get that stage. this is because your grounding action in early stage of fixing the frown.
After you set your bevel on both side of the blade then you go head move up on your stone finish the edge.
Please note: you will spend a lot time on 1k to set bevel from heel to the tip. Don't get happy as soon as you see shiny bevel. you must make sure your hone contacts to the blade from heel to the tip. you can check this by watching the how water moves on front of your blade while you make your strokes.
should be same. water from heel to the tip on top of the blade. you kinda cut the water.
if bevel missing water in some parts then there is a still problem.
Lastly may be the most important. i wouldn't advise you to fix this blade if in fact it is not yours and you have never done so before.
i know how you will feel if you do something wrong.
Better let someone else do the job which is knows what is he doing.
you can buy cheap bay blades and train at first.

Originally Posted by wdwrx

all straights should have a faint curve to the blade, but there's no way I could find that particular thread again. I did do exactly that.

... .

My My You are right professionally honed blade should have heel and tip honed more then rest of the blade.
But please don't start to hone as pro when you just start to hone the blade.
It takes years to learn that.
PLEASE SEND THIS BLADE TO SOMEONE ELSE.

Originally Posted by wdwrx

I could swear I've read somewhere that all straights should have a faint curve to the blade, but there's no way I could find that particular thread again.

Here is a 1961 barber manual excerpt that discusses and illustrates the celebrated slight smile. It is one way to do it. Straight across is another. What you don't want is a concave bevel or frown. (looking at it from the side)

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

My My You are right professionally honed blade should have heel and tip honed more then rest of the blade.
But please don't start to hone as pro when you just start to hone the blade.
It takes years to learn that.
PLEASE SEND THIS BLADE TO SOMEONE ELSE.

Learn to do by doing....
It's not a valuable blade by any means, certainly not something I couldn't replace if I had to. Considering the shape it was in when I got it, it's already miles ahead. The friend who lent it to me is aware of my lack of honing experience and isn't expecting miracles.

I did hi_bud's tape trick and the bevel is now more even. Not perfect, but certainly wider at the narrow point than it was before. Then I got rid of all the tape and honed it till the bevel was set. The first thing I noticed was that there was a "vibration" on only the one side of the spine but this smoothed out as it wore a bit on the hone. I'm now still working on getting the bevel set all the way; there's a small area at the very heel that still needs a bit more work. It's almost there.
Thanks for the insight hi_bud, it never would have occurred to me that the problem was caused by the back of the blade.

Yeah! I did it! This one is as sharp as I've gotten a blade yet. The bevel came out a lot deeper and fairly even. It still has a narrow spot, but it's much wider than it was before. Even though it seemed sharp before I fixed it, it bore more resembalance to one of my chisels than the edge of a straight; hollow on one side and beveled on the other.

hi_bud_gl, even though I don't agree with your advice to send it out and have it done by someone else (my Mama didn't raise no quitters), I found your advice regarding the tape to correct for an uneven spine tremendously helpful. I hate to think how much time and energy i would have spent struggling with it.

So my next question would be, now that I've put a bunch of wear into the spine, and judging by the strange feed-back I was getting initialy, would it be worn closer to true? Will whoever hones it next have the same issues I did or will that problem diminish as the spine gets more wear?

It'll be a day before I can shave with it (whiskers have gotten awfully scarce around here lately) but I'll be sure to post back and tell everyone how it went.

Cheers!

Originally Posted by wdwrx

OH Lordy... so much info, not enough memory...
I could swear I've read somewhere that all straights should have a faint curve to the blade, but there's no way I could find that particular thread again. I did do exactly that. I was trying to follow the contour of the sweep on the spine.


... I've just checked all my blades, and they all have a slight curve to the edge, some more than others, but still a slight curve.

Now I'm really confused...

There are threads out there where people talk about their preferences for blades with slight smiles... Although some of my favorite razors have edges that are straight as an arrow, ending in a really nice, scary sharp point I would say that the only really big deal is when a blade has a frown... and we don't like frowny blades.

One thing I'd recommend for the future is that you shouldn't be at the 8k level when you are trying to deal with a problematic bevel (just one of my sweet rhymes). One of the biggest improvements in my honing happened when I made sure not to go to a higher grit stone until my bevel was set completely... and then I don't move to my finisher until the entire edge is properly honed at the mid-grit level... and so on and so on.