Thread: I need help getting an edge

'Evening All:

Sorry couldn't back to you earlier this past week; it was very rough with a lot of SNAFUs. Am still working on the Torrey, have put a strip of electrician's tape on the spine so as to not wear out the steel. Am thinking it may be one of those mentioned above i.e. uneven tempered steel. Haven't given up though. I'm getting some "popping" will try later this week to get some arm-shaving (for testing puposes NOT for the aesthetics of it!).

Have a great week everyone!

Make sure you are changing the tape as soon as it "wears" or becomes worn in the spine area or is no longer brightly polished there and is dull.

I still wouldn't make too much of hair popping @ this stage--that's really better done after you know you have a blade that shaves (verified by actually shaving). (Leave the HHT mythology at bay for the moment--it's best employed later on.) Then you can calibrate whatever hair popping test suits your fancy. For now, I'd focus on hair shaving or actually shave-testing.

In this case: How much resistance is there when you try to shave arm hair & what stone are you coming off of when you try?

I personally don't tape razors unless I'm doing a wedge, but Disburden is right--make sure you change it every now & then if you do--it can wear also & then you'd no longer be making contact w/ the tip of the bevel.

Keep us posted!

It seems that your problem may be one of two things.

1. A tempering problem. Either the razor was heat treated but not put back in the oven to be tempered to a softer HRC in which case the steel will be hard & brittle or the tempering may have been performed incorrectly resulting in a very tough steel that abrades very slowly. The most effective solution for this are DMT diamond hones.

2. The geometry may be off. If you can measure the width of the blade and then divide that number by the thickness of the spine. If the result is greater than 4 then the angle of the bevel is to shallow. It will result in a very wide bevel that takes a long time to develop via honing. If so them multiple layers of tape on the spine will be required.

Just my $.02,