Thread: is this an uneven bevel?

Hi everyone, I have been continuing with my first honing attemp on this razor at the weekend, and pretty much spent the whole day on it...i think i must be doing something wrong?.. i did have a shave with it at the end of the day just to see if i could and it cut hairs but wasn't very comfy...it also felt like the edge was wide when compared to my full hollow ground...
with the magic marker technique it removed it all evenly on one side and only in the middle on the other side, unless i applied more pressue on the bits with marker left on, it would vanish in a few strokes. I waited till it cut hairs on the skin of my arm on the 1k then went ot the 4k and it got duller and wouldn't cut hair then eventually it did and i moved to the 8k and continued, then stropped..
so should i go back to the 1k or 4k? as it is not feeling right to shave with? does speed make mcuh of a difference as i was going slow but when viewing honeing videos others go alot faster is this a technique thing that comes with practice or does the speed move more metal?

That's so funny Mark, I was battling with the same thing last night on my first hone, it'd be all sharpish and then I'd mess it up and lose it (last night). I had been on the thing for days trying to cut 1 hair. The forum guys steered me toward making my bevel correct with circle strokes..etc... and it made all the difference. I didn't have a 1k, so I used some sandpaper. My bevel was kinda cury and weird..thick here, thin there... different on both sides...etc at first. I worked it on the sand paper until it was a nice even line (or close to that, I'm sure it's not perfect), same on both sides, probably like you're imagining it should look /\ ...then...POOF! all better. It went easy after that, except for the part where you accidentally dull it, like you mentioned...LOL. I slowed my strokes and was careful not to bang the edge and that made it go better.

I was going nowhere fast for days until then. I thought I had a bevel, but didn't. It definately looks squared away when you have one, nice and neat like a razor blade.

I don't know if it's sharp enough to shave until I grow my whiskers a bit, but I have a nice SMOOTH bald spot on my arm! I used 400 sandpaper, and I think it was a little too rough, but my razor is basically a test bed. It chewed the spline up quite a bit, but the nice even line of the bevel was like magic when it showed up. I'm am really really new Mark, not giving advice because I don't know what I'm doing, but we seem to be in about the same spot and I had a little success finally so I thought I'd share for whatever it's worth.

But can I shave with it, I don't know yet.

-= Beer

Originally Posted by markhur

Hi everyone, I have been continuing with my first honing attemp on this razor at the weekend, and pretty much spent the whole day on it...i think i must be doing something wrong?.. i did have a shave with it at the end of the day just to see if i could and it cut hairs but wasn't very comfy...it also felt like the edge was wide when compared to my full hollow ground...
with the magic marker technique it removed it all evenly on one side and only in the middle on the other side, unless i applied more pressue on the bits with marker left on, it would vanish in a few strokes. I waited till it cut hairs on the skin of my arm on the 1k then went ot the 4k and it got duller and wouldn't cut hair then eventually it did and i moved to the 8k and continued, then stropped..
so should i go back to the 1k or 4k? as it is not feeling right to shave with? does speed make mcuh of a difference as i was going slow but when viewing honeing videos others go alot faster is this a technique thing that comes with practice or does the speed move more metal?

Honing speed is relevant to time but not metal removal.
Does it cut hair evenly along the whole blade ?
I'm concerned about this extra pressure you applied to clear the marker from the bevel. Does it require this pressure even at 8 k to clear the marker ? If it does the bevel is still not set.
If the razor is warped it may need some gymnastics to get full contact but pressure is a no no at end stage.

Originally Posted by markhur

so should i go back to the 1k or 4k?

Your best option is to leave the razor alone and hone another one that doesn't have such issues.

thanks for the replies, Beerosaur I'm glad its not just me with this issue i think with persistance it might pop the hairs....

Onimaru, i does seem to cut hair evenly, however i didn't think to do the marker test on the 8k i just applied the same pressue in the right areas when i moved up to the 4k and then less and less and none on the 8k..

afriad i don't have any other razors to practice on at the moment, i've brought some on ebay with the intention of restoring but they will need some sanding to remove rust and pits and new scales before honing... also i don't think i want to practice on them as they are too nice one is a wolestonholme and the other a joseph allen with a chip in the blade.. so am watching ebay for some that don't need restoration only honing and are cheap, as the one i'm practicing on now was like £30!

Try the marker at 8k & look real close, with a loupe if you have to. If you have a complete bevel then may just need to refine the edge you have a little.

The bevel is wide because the grind is shallow, don't worry about it. If you see a wedge that has a fair bit of use and doesn't have a wide bevel, i would begin to wonder why.

I only have one wedge (M. George and Son, I think is the mark on it), I think it's probably a bit older than that and the grind is very uneven. Unless someone reground it, I was the first person to hone it and it is otherwise straight as it lays flat on a flat stone on both sides, aside from the smile.

I do not use tape on mine, it's too new to need it. I think you need to mark the edge with a light marker coat and make sure you're getting all the way to the edge all the way around it with your polish stone. If you're not, that would go a long way toward explaining why even after stropping, you're having trouble getting the edge you want.

IME, it should be more forgiving to pressure than a hollow ground razor, so if you're not flattening one of those out honing it, you should be fine with this one, it's just going to take more work because you're working more metal. Even if you use tape, you're going to still end up chasing back a fat bevel because you can't get around the shallower grind - the tape just buys you a little bit of time to do it.

I don't know what everyone else thinks about pastes and such, but because of the shallow grind, I avoid a pasted strop on my wedge, working off the rounded bevel the next hone could create a huge amount of work.