Thread: Honing my first Wapi

Hey all,

I posted my dilemma in the Beginner's forum, forgetting that there was a Honing Forum here as well. I have been honing for a few months now, and have had good results with the Solingen Razors I have. I just got my first Wapi in the mail today (all the way from Poland) and was eager to start honing and shaving. I got my Nortons out and was all set for a nice time of honing, when on putting the razor on the 1k to set a bevel, I noticed that the razor is not laying flat against the stone. I know my stones are flat because I hone other razors on them with good results, so I'm assuming the Wapi is not straight. I would say that about a good centimeter from the heel up the blade, the edge does not come in contact with the hone. So, I was wondering if anyone can help out a fairly new hone practitioner. Thanks for listening to me ramble all.

Try do x strokes or rolling x strokes. Any of them will work.
if you have narrow hone can do the job too.
Pay attention when you do rolling x . not stay in same location more then others.
hope this helps . gl

Sounds like a warped blade, do as Sham has suggested and use a rolling or rocking X stroke.

Hey thanks guys.
I tried doing the rolling X and that seemed to help, but still not where it needs to be. I guess I just need to work on my honing technique for this one.

I've never honed a Wapi. IIRC Glen (gssixgun) ran into some that needed the grind on the heel corrected before going further ?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I've never honed a Wapi. IIRC Glen (gssixgun) ran into some that needed the grind on the heel corrected before going further ?

+1 on that suggestion.
Black marker including the heel portion will reveal if this fix is necessary.
If the heel is fine, rolling x strokes until the bevel is set on the entire blade.

All great ideas, and all of them work..

You might really want to "sight" down the spine, and the edge, sometimes with razors we forget to use our eyes... Just this quick simple procedure can help a ton when it comes to warps...

Hold the razor up and out and sight down it, toward a light source, (think Handgun) look at the spine, look at the edge , look at the heel , and look at the toe.... check the grind too...Make sure everything looks even and straight ...

Surprisingly you will find many that have some issues, but at least if you know they are there you can work around them... You don't start doubting your abilities if you know ahead of time there is a problem and you can form a plan of attack...

As to the Wapi heel problems, about 30% have them, and cross your fingers that you don't have a crumbling heel after you finally get it honed...