Thread: Honing a Wedge

Today while honing a wedge I won on eBay, I noticed after about 15 minutes I didn't even have enough of an edge to remove arm hair. After lifting the spine just barely off the stones, I was able to get a very good edge in just a few minutes.

I don't use tape when I hone, but I would guess that if I did for this razor, it would improve the edge even more.

My question is: Is this a common issue for honing wedges, or am I doing something wrong? I know everyone will tell me that whatever works for me is fine, which is part of what I love about this place, but I am curious if what I am doing probably isn't the best way. Is this not giving me the finest shave possible? Is this the best for the long-term health of my razor?

Thanks,

John

I have never honed a wedge, but there is a nice section on it in the wiki. The search box is my best friend.

Max has an excellent video series on wedge issues. They can be more difficult to get the initial bevel set. It sounds like you were close but not quite there on it.

Using tape will decrease the amount of honing needed to get the bevel set, because with tape there is less metal that you'll have to remove and you won't be removing anything from the spine. But, if properly honed, the edge won't be any different at the end whether you use tape or not.

If you had used a layer or two of tape, you would also have been able to maintain consistency on your bevel angle better than by freehand. Food for thought.

I would say definitely use two or three layers of tape. I did on mine and it certainly got sharper, faster.

It sounds like someone else had used tape, or whatever they used during this razor's working life, or just increased the bevel angle freehand. You could eliminate this by using a coarser stone, with some pressure on the area behind the edge, rather than on the spine, but it will take time and work to return to a really good edge with finer stones. You might also find you didn't like the look of it, if the slight hollow found in most wedges meets a plane surface some distance from the edge.