Thread: Need Help Interpreting Magic Marker Test...

Hey all,

I just started honing a razor, and the hone wear on the spine was a little uneven (wider in the middle) and so I decided to do the magic marker test, although I don't really know how to use it. I guess if, after a few strokes, the marker was off the bevel I'd know I was evenly accessing the edge. Well, that didn't happen, and what I have left has me stumped.

On one side of the razor almost all of the marker was gone after a few strokes, just a touch on the heel and toe...

On the other side there was a lot of black left - almost the entire edge.

What does that mean? Do I need to do anything specific to the spine on one side? Should I just hone the one side until I get the marker to disappear consistently? Or is the test result only telling me that the bevel isn't set, regardless of which side the marker hangs around on, and I simply need to keep going as per usual.

Thanks, as always, for all your help!

can you tell if the blade is deviating from being perpendicular to the spine?
What you explain would be the case when the blade is slightly bent towards one side.
Of course pics will always help a lot in determining what is going on.

Originally Posted by mainaman

can you tell if the blade is deviating from being perpendicular to the spine?
What you explain would be the case when the blade is slightly bent towards one side.

Well, it took me awhile to figure out an angle for viewing this... I ended up looking at the blade through the end of the scale, like a rifle sight (if you see what I mean), and sure enough, it was listing a bit to one side.

Is there anything I can do to correct this, or is this one a lost cause?

so, sounds like a warped blade.

you can still hone the blade i'm pretty sure.. are you doing a full x stroke where you start with the heel on the stone, and end with only the toe on the stone? i would expect that to get some of the magic marker off the side where you weren't making contact. on the side where the heel and toe only are missing contact shift pressure to the heel to begin with to make contact, and towards the end of the stroke shift pressure to the toe. that should also get contact along the whole stroke. what im trying to describe is what people call a rolling x stroke.

another way to think of it is "hone on the edge of your hone" treating it like a narrow hone.