Thread: Honing help needed for a Pipe Razor restoration

Hi Guys,
I'm new to honing. I've brought about 5 restoration razors to shaving condition, but this one is out of my league!


I picked this piece up at a flea market for $2.

I've been working on scales and blade cleaning up till now. last night i tried to begin honing. I"m getting nowhere. I was wondering if you could give me any tips.






Thanks!

This is a heavy grind Sheffield blade with spine wear...
You have two routes..

1. Follow the old wear with some honing gymnastics and get it to shave ok...

2. Fix the bevel and get an even much better edge with a ton of work...

But you just learned that honing isn't quite all that easy and bevel setting is just plain hard work

Check out the Video Sub-Forum for some Honing hints to watch...

I think Glenn nailed it in his reply, +1 to all he said. Apart from that, you definitely are getting somewhere - I can see the honing you did set it's mark so you certainly are moving the edge somewhere. It may not be as fast as you would like, and it may not even be the correct direction - but it works. If you persist on that one, and manage to get it in serviceable order, you stand to learn a whole lot.
Best of luck.

BTW - great find, and what a price. It will be a lovely razor for sure, when it's done.

I put a layer of electrical tape on the spine for a bit but that seemed to be getting nowhere at the heel of the blade. It's not making contact at all. So I added more electrical tape at the toe but no luck. I then tried with no tape at all but you can see the results.

So should I just keep doing what I'm doing. I've got the 2 basic norton stones (220/1000 4000/8000). I'd love some ideas on the work I should do.

Thanks guys

You have to realize that this razor was shaving at some point in time in the past, that is what I meant by just following the old bevel and honing routine...
Use a black marker and color the bevel, now slowly figure out what stroke it is going to take to remove that marker too the edge... Can you repeat that ???

If you have already wiped that out with your honing and cleaning, then you are going to need to cut a new bevel, with the wear that is on that razor I would use 2 layers of tape, and start cutting one in... This could take HOURS,,,,, no really HOURS, even using heavy pressure and circles on the 1k...
Now if you drop to the 220 it will go faster but you stand a huge chance of wrecking the razor...

This differentiates, between just "Honing", and "Fixing" a razor... You can just hone the razor like it was in the past and get a shaving edge, fixing the razor means you re-set the whole bevel to how it should be...

That is a great restoration project
You have your work cut out for you though, getting a good bevel on it.

Glen's advice is spot on.
Check out the videos he is referring to.

I learned a lot from them, and wouldn't have been able to rescue my more challenging jobs without that kind of help.
If I may, my suggestion would also be to get a few more "easy" razors under my belt before going at this.
(that is, if indeed you haven't done all that many)
It's amazing what practice will do, both on the techniques applied, but also in familiarity with your hones.
That beauty won't go anywhere in the mean time
Just a suggestion though, if you go at it and get it all fixed up, the more kudos to you!
Good luck

I"m so glad for all the help. I am learning a ton and I am totally addicted to this hobby now. Thanks again for all your help and advice. I'm eager to learn and know that I don't know much at all!!

Tim

I've spent several hours honing this blade on the Norton 1k using 2 layers of electrical tape. Last night I got it to the point where it would shave hair off of my arms from all parts of the blade. I've done some strokes on the 4k and 8k as well. Does anything look wrong or should I strop it and try a shave?