Thread: From "frown" to "smile"

I recived this Boker King Cutter few day ago from customer. As seen on the photo the razor is in pretty bad condition (huge hone wear and frown blade).
I did everything that I can to remove "frown" and to properly hone the razor.
After all the smile come to my face and I can say that test shaving was excellent. I hope that my customer will be sattisfied also.

Sweet, suddenly the hone wear on my razor doesn't look so bad, if you got that one shaving, there's hope for mine yet

The hope is always there :-), you just have to know what to do

I don't understand the preoccupation that some people have with hone wear on a straight. Some of my best shaving straights have hone wear that most people would turn their noses up at. Sure it's nice to have a pristine looking razor sometimes but you are missing out on some great blades at excellent prices by not considering them.

My issue with it is lack of knowledge sadly.

I'm coming up to my first honing on a razor i've cleaned up myself and it has what looks to be heavy hone wear. You hear so much about hone wear that, In my position, you wonder whether this is a razor you can work on yourself, is it capable of being honed, do i need to tape, not tape, will the bevel angle be right if i hone without tape etc etc etc.

It's kind of intimidating until you do it i guess.

Originally Posted by tekbow

My issue with it is lack of knowledge sadly.

I'm coming up to my first honing on a razor i've cleaned up myself and it has what looks to be heavy hone wear. You hear so much about hone wear that, In my position, you wonder whether this is a razor you can work on yourself, is it capable of being honed, do i need to tape, not tape, will the bevel angle be right if i hone without tape etc etc etc.

It's kind of intimidating until you do it i guess.

Relax....do not think much...hit the hone and that's it. You will know when it is shave ready.

I have one that look a bit like that.

Can you please advise how you did it.

Kind regards

1. I hone it on 1k stone with lifting spine of about 30-40 degrees until frown gone
2. after that I set the bevel as usual (blade and spine flat on the stone) without tape
3. progression up to 10k stone
4. stropping linen/leather

This one was honed on Naniwa stones.