Thread: Honing a wedge

Just finished sanding a couple wedges, and about to start honing.

Is it optimal to tape a wedge prior to honing, or, is it mostly a personal matter of the length of the bevel?

I've not yet honed a wedge, particularly an old one.....looking forward to hearing what people think.

Thanks,
Maxi

I usually will tape on a razor if I've put effort into making it shiny.

In general, for wedges, I find tape just reduces the amount of time it takes to hone. By how much, I don't know.

I would start out with 4 layers of tape on the spine, along the length of the spine, be absolutely sure that the tape is even on both sides of the blade and is not farther down the blade on one side or the other. Most old wedges were hammer forged and ground on imperfect wheels so they are not perfect in symmetry. Without tape you would be grinding away a lot of steel along the spine and body of the blade as well as having a bevel that looked like a radio's wavelength. The tape should not go backward on the spine past the length of the edge of the blade. Dont be afraid of using some pressure on the lower grit to establish the bevel, after the bevel is set, no pressure or very light pressure as you move up the grits. The rest is up to you, the stones and the blade, this is where experience comes in, you may not have any now, but you will when you are done with the blade or the blade is done with you. Have fun and feel free to ask more questions via the forums or thru PMs.

One thing to add to Kelly's post...be prepared to replace the outer layer of tape several times until you have that uniform bevel set.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to get at it tonight after work. I looked at it a bit yesterday, but then I decided to think about it some more while I had a beer. My thoughts led me back to the fridge to retrieve another.

Asthetically, even though the blade is not perfect, I'd like to keep the bevel small, and I think the tape will help a little with that, correct? I'd rather not have a bevel that extends half way up the blade!

This is a W&B wedge. Posted some pics in the resto threads for those interested. I also have just finished a Frederick Reynolds.....and I think I may send that one out.....

T minus 9 hours to stone time.


Thanks,
Maxi

Using tape will give you a smaller bevel than you would have without it, but there is never a guarantee that your bevels will be "small."

The first wedge I honed was a W&B 7/8 and I started out as Kelly says, just with three layers of tape on the spine until I'd set a pre-bevel. Then I went to 1 layer to set a true bevel and then I went on from there.

In case you're interested I honed it on 1k and 4k Shapton on glass, then 8k and 12k Naniwa superstones and finished it on a Nakayama Maruichi.

The only reason I mixed Shaptons and Naniwa stones is that I'd just got the Naniwas and I wanted to play with them..!

As Dylan says, tape will help keep your bevels smaller but theres no guarantee as to how much. It'll also avoid spine wear.

Good luck and keep us posted!

I just wrote a bit about honing wedges

here is the link

http://straightrazorpalace.com/661024-post12.html

good thread to read too

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...harpening.html


PS: since your asking the question I would recommend Tape also...

Well,

I sat down last night with some tape and a 220. I started with 4 layers and a magic marker. I found that i was hitting the whole edge, but on my pull stroke, there is much more metal being removed from the center of the blade. I did some pressure circles, and rolling x's. After a while, I decided that the best thing to do was take a rest....I was looking for a wall for my head.

I went back about two hours later, did some more with four layers. Then went to three. After about another 30 minutes, I had an edge that could stick at a TNT, but would not shave arm hair. Moved to the 1K. Continued with rollingX, and at this point, still had sticking for a TNT, but no arm hair.

Put the razor to bed....had a beer, and put myself to bed.

At the end of the first period:

Razor - 0 Maxi - 0

The game resumes after a 9 hour work-day intermission.


In all seriousness, would this be a good time to remove all but One layer of tape, and continue removing metal?

Thanks for all your input.

Originally Posted by Maxi

In all seriousness, would this be a good time to remove all but One layer of tape, and continue removing metal?

Thanks for all your input.

Can you post pics of the blade?