Preparing to hone my first smiling near wedge. Need advice please.

Attachment 74508Attachment 74509Attachment 74506Attachment 74507Attachment 74508Attachment 74509Attachment 74506[ATTACH=CONFIG]74507[/ATHi all,

I've got a very nice Tally ho Sabre point with I believe a near wedge grind. I've polished it to the best of my ability and I'll be making a nce set of scales this up coming week. I would like to pick brains smarter and more experienced than mine before honing. 1st: Is this a near wedge grind? 2nd: Is there anything unique to this razor that I need to look out for so as not to damage it 3rd: What type of honing stroke would be best for it? 4th: Is the single layer of tape I normally use good for this job also? 5th: How good can I expect it to shave? Lastly, thanks for any info on it that you can give me.

Don

1)Get the scales on before you hone so you wont damage a finished edge while tinkering.

2) It is a smiling/curved blade, so you will have to hone in an arcing/windshield wiper type motion as you do the x strokes.

3) Use electrical tape on the spine to prevent the spine wear, be sure to get the spine straight down the center of the tape and that there is an exact equal amount of tape along both sides of the blade along the spine.

4) If this is your first attempt at honing be prepared for dissatisfaction and frustration. If I were you I would learn on a lesser blade. Good luck!

Yep, what nun said especially #4.

if you want to assess how much tape to use give it a swipe or 2 on your finest stone & then see where the hone marks are under magnification.
You can then buff them out before proceeding.

Thanks, I will have them on first. I just wanted info prior so I will have a plan of attack. This my first attempt at a blade like this. I've honed several others (20-25) but this one is special to me.

Get out the magic marker, you really need to be able to see the area contacting the hone. You also need to be prepared to use strokes you never really thought of before --- often heel-leading, swooping, rolling strokes work best, especially at the bevel-setting stage.

Watch the bevel carefully -- once it creeps up the blade you can't un-creep it. Go slow and resist the urge to increase the pressure.

That is a gorgeous blade.

Be sure to pay attention to what is happening on the blade as well as the hone, if you need to, take a break and think things out. If you get stumped ask for help.

I just learned this from Glen a couple of weeks ago: Change the tape at least as often as you change grits. 3M Super77 is the most abrasion-resistant tape. Better for honing than their Super33.

And yeah, learn on a different blade. That one is too gorgeous to experiment on. Looks to me like a full wedge, which in my experience is the easiest grind to damage by honing.

I did a lot of work on a smiling Greaves & Sons Sheafworks wedge before I really knew what I was doing, and now there's so much hone wear on it that it's probably not useful as a razor any more. Even with tape on the spine you can end up with way too wide a bevel.

As others have said, you'll probably need some fairly acrobatic honing strokes to keep the bevel narrow--and you'll definitely want to pay attention to keeping the bevel narrow. That failure is how I ruined my Greaves.

Good luck with it!

That is quite a Smiling razor there like the guys already mentioned that is not a "Beginning Hone" but here is a vid I made some time back one some of the techniques used on them in this thread

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-gssixgun.html

That will also get you into the Video sub-forum and there are other people that have shown other styles too.. take some time to do some browsing in there...

That is a beautiful razor and everyone has already gave you sage advice. If I were you I'd pick up an eBay special smiling wedge for $30 or less to practice on. They literally come up everyday and you really don't want to mess up something this nice.

Just to get an idea of what it is that makes these blades a real challenge to hone, try this if it pleases you.

1. Lay blade on very fine hone(you can put something over it like paper to prevent scratch) at same angle you hone and put index finger on heal so spine and bevel make contact. Observe now that toe is not registered on hone and note height tang sits above table.

2. Repeat same procedure with toe on hone, note now heel is above table and hieght of tang above tablet will, it will be higher than when heel end was registered.

3. Turn blade around so it faces you repeat 1 and 2.

These changes in elevation can be accomplished in single honing strokes, but you can see this is a compound movent you hand must follow each stroke back and forth and that is what makes them difficult.

I always hone compound blade shapes with two hands and that helps me.

Absolutely beautiful blade. I don't think I have seen one prettier! Enjoy!

Fortunately I've been using Super 77. I have honed a couple of 5/8' blades with a smile, but this blade is in a different league. This would be my first full wedge and I can't allow bad things to happen to it. Thank you for the cautions. I may have it honed by someone more experienced (hard to let go).

Thanks a bunch Glenn. You've been a great help with improving my honing technique. I would like to be able to do all aspects of this restore, but I have to not let that desire ruin this razor. Lots of homework ahead. Thanks again,Don.

Great advice and greatly appreciated! Will do. Thanks much,Don.

Don,
The reason these guys are mentioning these key points is that it takes a lot of patience to get that razor's bevel re-established. The amount of steel you are likely to have to remove is in the neighborhood of how much I would remove on 20+ normal hollow ground ebay razors. I'm not kidding. Be prepared to hone a while and sit it down until another day. Another thing to pay attention to is dishing of your bevel setting stone. Take your time and you will have a beautiful wedge in your rotation soon enough.

WOW! That's a lot of steel. As I've only been honing for a few months and still have lots of improving to do on the more common razors, let alone this one, patience IS my greatest enemy. Thanks for all the sound advice laced with heavy doses of experience. If anyone thinks of something else that may help me, please keep it coming.

Thanks again for all the excellent help Gentlemen! Don.

Don,

That is one incredible blade... It surely represents what a razor should be to me!! I am so curious where you came up with that astonishingly beautiful blade??

Best Always!!!

Mike

Thanks Mike,

I bought a roll of 9 razors off our water treatment plant tech. who picked then up @ a local garage sale. He collects musical instruments. I was showing a mutual friend a couple of my restores and he offered them to me. Score! The Tally Ho was quite conspicuiously screaming "TAKE ME NOW MISTER". It needed a good bit of work, but plenty of steel there to smooth things out. I love that guy!! Thanks, Don.

I can actually hear that Tally Ho from here.

i hear it here down at the bottom of the usa.... i am closer to cuba than to orlando.... :D