Thread: Establishing a Bevel

Folks,

What is the best way to establish or re-establish the bevel that gives you the best opportunity to get a super sharp edge?

jmsbcknr

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I use a heal leading stroke, not the x pattern and be very careful about using any pressure at this point. I usually build mine on 4-6K stones.

What's important is that you establish a CLEAN bevel. How you accomplish that is really irrelevant. If I've got one that needs lots of work, like an old, blunt, wedge or one that needs a complete bevel restoration due to chips, damage or extreme dullness, I'll use a circular motion doing one side at a time and keeping the razor on the hone. There's no need to baby an edge that needs a lot of work. That's like using a weedeater to mow your lawn.

A clean bevel, as I think of it, is one where the bevel is the same width on both sides of the blade and the scratch patterns are completely clean to the very edge of the blade on both sides and all the way up and down the edge. This can sometimes be hard to see with the naked eye, especially with fine grit hones. I usually use anywhere from 360 to 600 grit diamond hones to do this. That sure sounds like very, very coarse grit, but it works extremely well if you don't want to make a weekend project out of honing your razor - and the scratch patterns get straightened right up as you start going to finer grits one the bevel is established. As soon as the bevel is clean like that, it's been restored and more work on the large grit hones will only wear your razor unnecessarily.

Razors that have a farily clean bevel but aren't very sharp I start off with a 1200 grit hone, usually. It takes a little experience to determine just how much hone you'll need for each blade's condition. Some can be set straight away in little time with a 4000 grit. It all depends on their condition. Ideally, for minimum edge wear, you want to use the finest grit you can use to hone the razor without turning it into a honing marathon.

Most razors can be restored from butterknife dull to shaving sharp within about 20 minutes if you use right progression of hones. It's a waste of time to use one too fine and it's a waste of steel to use one that's too coarse.

Robert,(Papabear)
I use almost the same proceedure as you do,and have had good sucess with it for many years.I rarely have to spend more than 20 minutes on a razor as you stated,unless they have some chunks out of the edge ,or geometry problems.I look at all of mine under a Stereo Microscope,(sometimes before and after)Usually only at 40X My microscope is a very good quality one with a long depth of field ,and I can also view the edges edge on(at about 70degrees,Ive been doing this a long time,and can pretty much predict how they will shave from the edge on view
Best Regards Gary

Okay, this is a really stupid questions. I think I know what you guys are talking about but I want to make sure.

What exactly is the bevel?

I assume that it is the actual part of the edge that is angled to cut. Like when you work on a 1000 you are trying to establish the bevel, maybe even 4000. When you work on the 4k and the 8k you are trying to polish the bevel that is established on the coarser grits.

You have it correct!

The one thing that will help you is to evaluate the edge before you start honing. Use either the thumbnail test or a handheld microscope. Then you can decide what grit you want to start honing with. Personally, I start with a 1000 if there are visible nicks or a 4000 if the nicks can only be seen under a 30X microscope. I use 1-2 lbs of pressure to start with and then lighten up as the nick goes away.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by obsessis

Okay, this is a really stupid questions. I think I know what you guys are talking about but I want to make sure.

What exactly is the bevel?

I assume that it is the actual part of the edge that is angled to cut. Like when you work on a 1000 you are trying to establish the bevel, maybe even 4000. When you work on the 4k and the 8k you are trying to polish the bevel that is established on the coarser grits.

Originally Posted by PapaBull

I usually use anywhere from 360 to 600 grit diamond hones to do this. That sure sounds like very, very coarse grit, but it works extremely well if you don't want to make a weekend project out of honing your razor

Do you tape the spine when you use the coarser grits?

No, I never tape the spine. That throws off the geometry of the razor, in my opinion. All areas that contact a hone end up being highly polished by the time they're shave-ready and the spine is no exception. I know some worry about excessive hone wear on the spine, but the spine is designed to wear down evenly, maintaining the geometry and once a razor is honed and the blade restored, it may never see a low-grit hone again.

I dont tape the spine,as this would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do by honing, first is to establish a bevel,Secondly, correct any errors in the razors geometry(equal widths on edge faces,and proper angles from edge face to spine)

Best Regards Gary

Thanks for the help. I have a norton 1000 and have been using it on the real dull razors to attempt to get a clean bevel from the tip to the back. I have been taping the spine, but will stop that in the future. The theory of keeping the entire razor in contact with the stone.

jmsbcknr