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

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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!