Thread: Can this be honed out?

Rarreola, please see this thread for the back story.:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...-perlduck.html

Cliff notes version, this is what the scales looked like when I got the razor:

Just realized what you might be saying. Can someone verify for me, I need to have scales on before I send it out for honing, yes?

ohh, sorry for not see your picture and thread before I post my 2 cents, yes, you have to rescale it before the hone, mea culpa.

Eh. It's ok, I didn't have the threads cross linked.

FWIW (I may be out of my depth here) --

1. One alternative is keeping the frown, and getting the edge sharp. Since there are a _lot_ of old razors with frowns, I suspect the shave would be OK. However, honing a frowning edge is tricky.

2. To "fix" the frown, you hone the razor on a flat stone until you've removed metal from the toe and heel - enough metal so the toe and heel are even with the center of the frown. The edge will then be straight.

The first razor I bought had a frown -- my story is here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ning-edge.html

It eventually straightened out; it's "number 1" in my rotation.

Charles

My first clean up had a very similar profile as well, however, I was lucky that it is a shoulderless blade.
I watched Glen's video over and over before trying to do anything with it and now it shaves just great.

This might be viewed as a stupid question, especially at this point in this thread, but I'm the guy for the job. Why exactly is a frown difficult to shave with? I don't have any blades with frowns and am not in the market for one, given the bad press they seem to get, but it seemed to me that the profile of a frown might be closer to the curvature of the contours of parts of the face than a smiling edge would be. Just puttin' this out there.

I won't ask how that Shumate Barber is - I know.

I don't know if the blade was a fleabay or other method where you don't get to see and feel it first. If I go to antique store or show, I carry a small barber hone to check for smile/frown (I like smiles), and for symetry - any wave or warp. The Bhone and a loupe can be handy.

Originally Posted by ace

This might be viewed as a stupid question, especially at this point in this thread, but I'm the guy for the job. Why exactly is a frown difficult to shave with? I don't have any blades with frowns and am not in the market for one, given the bad press they seem to get, but it seemed to me that the profile of a frown might be closer to the curvature of the contours of parts of the face than a smiling edge would be. Just puttin' this out there.

Sharpening a frowning edge on a narrow stone isn't difficult. Sharpening a frowning edge on a wide stone (like a Norton bench stone), is not straightforward.

I think the frowns developed because people were using narrow hones. With a barber hone, it's easy to "accidentally" take more metal off the center of the blade, than off the ends. The razor shaves OK, and the barber keeps honing it unevenly until a real frown develops.

And then he says "Uh-oh, I need a new razor", and the frowning blade goes in his "old razor" drawer, and 50 years later one of us buys it on eBay!

. . . Charles

PS -- at least, it _could_ have happened like that!<g>

The simple answer...
A frown is much more likely to cut ya besides the honing problems... By always honing toward a smile, it would eventually turn a slight frown upside down The techniques are rather simple but they have to be mastered... The fastest way to get a frown, is to put yer finger on the blade, or to hone straight up and down the hone... Given "fairly" flat hones...
If you hone a lot of razors one thing you learn is that many spine/edge grinds are not perfect so by honing without guiding the edge over the years many razors will develop problems..