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

I came across an interesting problem while restoring an Invicta (E.M. Dickinson Sheffield) 6/8". After cleaning it up and getting a nice shine on the blade ready for putting the edge on the blade, I commnenced putting the bevel on it. One side was a great set of parallel lines but the other side had a taper (bigger at the toe of the blade thinner at the heel). First thought was too much pressure one way? After doing a few strokes, no this wasn't the problem. Too much steel on side compared to other to the other (ie, poorly hollow ground)? Didn't seem to be.
Sat with it a while (as you do we these things) and had this thought. Are the edges of the spine parallel? We assume they are 'cos I tell you I couldn't see any wobble. Maybe a few little teeny gaps when put against a straight edge but nothing that should have created this problem.
Got out the vernier calipers and measured the thickness of the spine and lo & behold I had a taper with a difference of about .001 in. Not much but enough to make the bevel on one side become wedged shape while the other side was straight.
So I made a little jig to hold the blade and carefully sanded the sides of the spine parallel. Reworked the edge and it has come out a treat - parallel bevels on both sides.
So a bevel taper doesn't lie but it might not be because of differences in pressure when honing. It may be a result of a wedged spine.

Happy shaving!

Looks like the edit to add the attachment didn't work so here it is in a different form.

I'm glad you fixed your problem, but, I think it was really was just an aesthetic issue... if you could have lived with the bevel in its state, i would have shaved just fine

I think That may be a similar problem that I am having can you post some pics of the jig you made.

Originally Posted by Undream

I'm glad you fixed your problem, but, I think it was really was just an aesthetic issue... if you could have lived with the bevel in its state, i would have shaved just fine

+1 I haven't checked but I bet more of mine are uneven than symmetrical but shave fine. Good thing because I wouldn't have the expertise to modify the spine accurately as you did. Good job.

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

Beechy, I too would love to see a pic or few of that jig. This is a common problem I run into. I notice it first when I've taped a spine and I see one part of the tape wearing off first. That tells me I need to hone naked for a while until the spine is straight, then re-apply tape.

I ALWAYS tape the spines. No sense putting more wear on any part of the blade that doesn't need it.

My apologies for not replying earlier but I went on holidays after I had posted this thread.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the jig I made but I'll try to describe what I did.

First I planned two strips of wood to the same thickness. They weren't wide (about 1/2" or 12mm) but were slightly thinner than the thickness of the razor. I placed these onto a flat piece of timber (planned to make a very flat surface to place the 2 timber strips) and clamped them loosely on to the board with a space for the razor to fit between them. I checked whether the razor was was showing above the the strip (used a little bit of metal shim to raise the strips) at one end and just about flush at the other. Fortunately I had one straight edge so this was the edge that I placed on the flat board. This basically gave me the straight egde to then set the height of the wooden strips. And because the razor spine was slightly wedged this shows up when viewed across the strips (higher one end than the other). I was careful at this stage to get everything square and straight. In esence this make two parallel strips the same height with a gap in between in which to fit the razor laid flat on its spine.
The next step was to use another straight edge with a width of about 5mm around which I wrapped wet/dry 360 grit paper (it was the only coarse paper I had). If I was doing it again I would probably use a coarse paper to start with and then use finer grit papers. I started at the end with the least amount showing (which in my case was the toe end of the razor) and then worked back slowly toward the heel of the razor cutting into the taper. It was slow work. When you start you can feel the hump because the staright edge is not sitting flat across both strips and it is a matter of slow and patient work til it feels flat.
The other thing that I did was make a wedge of quite hard EVA foam to lie the razor on so that the cutting edge was held off the flat board but just under the edge of the flat strip so that I would get the angle of the grind on the razor spine at approximately the right angle. I'm not sure that you really need to do this. On reflection the bevel edge will be derived from the straightness of the spine and not necessarily from the slight angle that you get if you raise the edge of the razor.

I hope this description makes sense.

Undream: I'm sure the razor would cut as well with the slight taper on the bevel 'cos really it is the sharpness of the very edge of the edge that does the cutting not the shape of the bevel. I guess if I wanted an ordinary razor I wouldn't have bothered but I wanted to make, hopefully, an elegant razor - one that spoke of patient, loving care. While I was away I came across an interesting piece in a Neville Shute novel, Round the Bend in which he wrote: "'Half a thou too small,' he said. 'The difference between Right and Wrong. Half a thou bigger, and it'ld [sic] be Right. As it is, it's Wrong, and you can't cheat about it.' He smiled again. 'Too bad when God gives you the mind of an Inspector, isn't it?'

Perhaps, I have the mind of an Inspector. And looking at some of the other replies I guess there is a few of us out there.

Happy shaving.

I am glad you posted this I was thinking of ways to make a jig and they where all allot more complicated than what you describe.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well I hope the drawings help explain the description of the jig.