Warped Blade Question

I am new to honing having only honed a handful of razors but so far getting good results. I am using Norton 220/1000, 4000/8000 and a Naniwa 12kss as a finisher. A buddy brought over a new razor for me to hone today and I discovered it is a bit warped. Any tips, advice, suggestions on how to handle this? He is new to straight shaving in fact he just started a week ago using a razor I borrowed him that I honed. I keep telling him to get it proffesionally honed but he wants me to do it so I really want to do a good job. Hopefully I'm not in over my head. Any help would be appreciated.

I've got a couple warped blades and to be honest, you can get them honed up with a little care on your hones, but they may not be a great shaver. I've got a great full-hollow Wade and Butcher that is honed up great, but I never shave with it because it almost always bites me when I'm shaving...the toe just dips a bit too far to one side and gets me almost every time.

Take a magic marker and paint the edge black. Let it dry a minute or two and then try a few strokes and observe what parts of the edge are making contact with the hone by whether all or part of the marker is removed.

Once I figure out the stroke that works by what removes the marker from the very edge I take alcohol , lighter fluid or whatever and remove the marker. Then I hone the razor with the stroke that proved best for making contact. Check out the SRP Wiki honing section for The Rolling X. Sometimes it works on warped blades. Narrower hones are sometimes good to have in that situation. :gl:

Jimmy's suggestion of the marker test is a great one - it will tell you what you're getting and what you're missing.

I find that with warped blades, I usually use a rolling X for the conves side and use a stroke that runs off the edge of the hone for the convex side. This is the only way that I know of to get into the convex area. If other guys know other ways, I'd be just as interested as the OP. :-)

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Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I find that with warped blades, I usually use a rolling X for the conves side and use a stroke that runs off the edge of the hone for the convex side. This is the only way that I know of to get into the convex area. If other guys know other ways, I'd be just as interested as the OP. :-)

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+1 on the concave side of the edge if it is that bad. I've also stood my single grit 1" thick Norton on it's side to get it.

Four step solution:

1. Place warped razor in vise.
2. Carefully tighten vise.
3. Put vise in closet.
4. Purchase unwarped razor.

Seriously, as others have suggested, this thing will be a bear to sharpen and is not likely to give a great shave.

A few older razors I have are slightly warped, but still useable. Once I noticed that they where warped, some are easy to tell some not..., I took them to my narrow hones. Sure they are a bugger to hone but I never worried about that much :p A narrow hone will follow the "wave" of the edge and hone it, or it will be to far gone to hone and you have to try straightening it out or move on to another razor.

All depends on what you want to do with it.

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Originally Posted by wsfarrell

Seriously, as others have suggested, this thing will be a bear to sharpen and is not likely to give a great shave.

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No one suggested that. Sure, honing a warped blade is something that you have to learn to do, but once you do it's no big deal and the razor will shave as well as any other.