Thread: honing razor

I'm still a bit confused by the advice. How will I know if the spine has even wear? By the magic marker test? Also, I'm still unsure on how to know how much tape to put. Also, looking at the pictures, I think it seems like the blade is frowning more on one side than the other. If that's so, what do I do about this?

hold the razor on a table edge down to find out where the frown is worse
then maybe 3/4" lenght on tape centered on the deepest part

Originally Posted by eagentebuddy

I'm still a bit confused by the advice. How will I know if the spine has even wear? By the magic marker test? Also, I'm still unsure on how to know how much tape to put. Also, looking at the pictures, I think it seems like the blade is frowning more on one side than the other. If that's so, what do I do about this?

Magic marker test is for the edge to make sure your blade's edge is touching the stone.
you watch the spine and see how much spine wear you have. IN your case middle of your blades spine wear at the moment is more then tip,heel.
what you do is this. you use 1 layer of electric tape and tape the more wear location of the spine.(middle portion of your blade , you tape spine not edge)
Basically what you do is you protect more honed spine.Not to get wear down more.
then you use 1k level stone and hone. while you hone you do check frequently spine wear make sure you will have even spine wear from heel to the tip.
when you get rich even spine wear your edge will be even too.
hope i am clear at this time. gl

Yeppers... you've got a sad little blade there... we need to turn that frown upside down. This is the way that I understand what you need to do:

As sham said, you need to remove metal from the spine everywhere except in the middle of the blade (the area where it has been honed the most). So, you want to protect the middle of the spine by putting tape over that portion of the spine.

This way, only the toe and heel areas will be worn down. After some time, you will reach a point where the spine is worn down enough at the two ends that you'll be able to get a straight edge on your razor.

One thing I'd keep in mind is that if you are adding pressure in the wrong place, you could be stalling out your progress. For example, if you are doing heavy pressure honing circles or something with your finger pushing down hard in the middle of the blade, you would be making this frown problem worse.

INHO, You are going to have to spend some time on a coarse stone evening out the spine wear before your edge comes around.

good luck!

WOW! Thats far from a smile! As Janivar said the blade has a number of issues. LIsten to Sham/Hi_bud_gl and the others, they are giving you good information. If it were me I would throw it away just because of how much blade is gone, it looks as if the shoulder goes all the way to the edge! You can dremel that out, it would be a fun project, but a lot of work for very little.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

WOW! Thats far from a smile! As Janivar said the blade has a number of issues. LIsten to Sham/Hi_bud_gl and the others, they are giving you good information. If it were me I would throw it away just because of how much blade is gone, it looks as if the shoulder goes all the way to the edge! You can dremel that out, it would be a fun project, but a lot of work for very little.

This is good advice for a person who wants to learn St8 Razor shaving. Buy a good priced used that is shave ready or a newer one that come professionally honed. If you try to shave with a blade like that, you might have a bad experience in shaving that is not hard to do. Put that blade aside for now until you know what a good shave means then you can figure out a challenge like that with no problem from forementioned suggetions or otherwise. I suggest you start out with a 5/8 or 6/8 size blade as they are easier to shave with as far as controling you shaving angle.

Thanks for the help again. Well, I've made some progress--despite slaving away for 3 hours or so. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but there are now little areas here and there which are more worn. So things have become more complex despite my getting rid of the large wear that was in the middle before. Honestly, it would probably be better for my sanity to buy a shave-ready blade, but I'm very stubborn and after using up so much time, I must see it through so long as my sanity holds. I don't know what to do about the shoulder meeting the heel. I've tried to round that off, but the area is too small to do much on the stone. I'd be happy just to get the rest of the blade good to go. On that note, once I manage to even out the blade, is it just normal honing from that point?

Originally Posted by eagentebuddy

Thanks for the help again. Well, I've made some progress--despite slaving away for 3 hours or so. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but there are now little areas here and there which are more worn. So things have become more complex despite my getting rid of the large wear that was in the middle before. Honestly, it would probably be better for my sanity to buy a shave-ready blade, but I'm very stubborn and after using up so much time, I must see it through so long as my sanity holds. I don't know what to do about the shoulder meeting the heel. I've tried to round that off, but the area is too small to do much on the stone. I'd be happy just to get the rest of the blade good to go. On that note, once I manage to even out the blade, is it just normal honing from that point?

yes as soon as you even up the spine edge should be even too.then you hone it as normal blade.

Originally Posted by eagentebuddy

I don't know what to do about the shoulder meeting the heel. I've tried to round that off, but the area is too small to do much on the stone.

check out this link for some help

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ing-heels.html

Thanks once again everyone. I'll definitely keep all this in mind for future reference. Unfortunately, I've given up on my current razor. The last straw was when I realized too late that one end of my waterstone was slightly uneven, where the whole time before I thought it was that particular side of my blade. By now, I've shaved off a ridiculous amount of the spine. I'm quite displeased with myself to say the least. Well, I'll certainly be getting a new shave-ready razor this time. Thanks again everyone.