Thread: Shape of the bevel on the edge doesn't lie!

This is one of the most common problems we see. On new blades sometimes, you will notice that TI will do a final grind where they grind or cut the burr off. This results in a wider bevel usually on the front of the razor and a thinner one on the back side. When re-honing, this difference remains. Now on the older razors, it is very common to see uneven wear on a spine and also see that there is uneven wear on the other side of the spine. There are several problems here. One is that many people perceive a warped spine because of this and the razor will rock on the stone. Particularly if the wear is heavy at the toe end. Another problem is when the spine wear on one side doesn't match the wear on the reverse side. The bevel will almost always match this uneven wear and it is easy to end up with several different bevels on each side of the razor. Even if you put a couple layers of tape on the spine, this uneven wear will still be reflected in the bevel.

Because of this, honing can be very problematic. You can try circles and X strokes at a 45 degree angle or use a rolling X stroke with some success, improving the bevel some and even making the razor shavable some times. The most certain approach for success is doing just what was described here. This is also what makes wedges and meat choppers with the kind of wear we are talking about so hard and time consuming to hone. It can take hours, even on a 220 stone and using heavy circles to get both sides of the razor's spine to reflect even wear which will be reflected in the bevel and then allow for successful honing. A word of caution for people purchasing old wedges and meat choppers that have been restored, but are not shave ready. The wear on the razor will immediately show back up with the same problems as before they were made to look pretty. Usually, the only exception is when that razor has actually been re-ground.

We kid and joke about these razors all the time and they can end up being nice shavers, but they are almost always a TON of work.

Have fun,

Lynn