Thread: Paging honing gods....

Double questions here.

First...I've seen the microscope pics of bevels and such, but does anybody have microscope pics of things like...bevel not set right or damage near bevel? The reason I ask is that sometimes, I'm looking under 60x and everything looks fine but it won't shave...when I bring it back and work it a bit more on the 3k and then bring it back up it works. Shame on me for being a visual learner

Second...I'm working on a Shumate and have a problem. Has anybody ever had a full hollow razor that lays flat on one side but you have to do a rolling-X on the other side? Usually with wedges, you'll have to do the rolling-X on both sides...this is the first time I've encountered one that needed it only on one side.

For the second question, it sounds like (for one reason or another...) the wear is not even from one side to the other. I've had blades like that before, and blades like that are part of the reason there is no cut and dry way to hone a razor - sometimes you get a weird one and you have to figure out what works. If a flat stroke on one side and a rolling X on the other does the job then go with it.

Originally Posted by red96ta

Double questions here.

....snip...
Second...I'm working on a Shumate and have a problem. Has anybody ever had a full hollow razor that lays flat on one side but you have to do a rolling-X on the other side? Usually with wedges, you'll have to do the rolling-X on both sides...this is the first time I've encountered one that needed it only on one side.

Lay a straight edge on the blade and on the back.
Lay if flat and run a flash light under it to see where the
wobble is.

I have a blade that is slightly potato chip, I can see light
in a belly under the blade when I hold a straight edge to it.
I am still looking at all the problems but since I can hone it
just fine with a very narrow hand held barber hone and
a pasted strop I may just worry it "right" over a long time.

I think great-grandad dropped this poor razor on it's toe at some point. I can't see any bend, but I'm sure that it is. That's the reason that it wasn't honing properly on one side....sigh...think I'm going to retire it.

BEFORE figuring out that it was probably slightly bent on the toe. I did get it shave ready, but after the first pass, I noticed this:



Although I can't see the bend, it's just enough to dip into flesh.

I wonder if maybe you work on the side that isn't "flat" maybe you can correct the "bend" or whatever caused it to cut you.

I would hate to see a nice blade like that retired...hopefully someone more experienced might chime in to help you out. If it were me, I'd probably do 2:1 strokes. More on the "uneven" side. to flatten it out, and once it started acting right on the hones, I'd go to 1:1. Just an educated guess though

I am pretty hone-mortal, so I can't miss an opportunity to mingle with the gods.

Here are few pictures of bevel damage, some are pretty extreme, but the later ones may not look too bad, but the razor will still shave poorly if at all.

They are all at 100x magnification but with rather high quality optics, which is why you can see so much detail. In reality looking through the microscope I can see even more details on the edge.

Excellent examples

I need to find my frigging loop... I have on Robeson, my first, where the blade is not exactly centered top to bottom so when I hone it I have to treat it like a single bevel. Took FOREVER to figure out what the problem was. Once I figured it out it didn't take to long to get it shaving well.

Maybe your just has a quirk about it thats elluding you at the moment.

red96ta ~ Not a god . How about a demon-child ?

Here's an incomplete bevel for you straight outta the factory. Nice smooth bevel but they didn't quite make it to the edge

Second pic is an edge damaged by heavy stropping.