Thread: I think I messed up....help?

Here's the short of the story: I have a 4/8 full wedge/near wedge that I initially just wanted to touch up. I bought a Norton 4/8K and went at it one night, definitely haphazardly. I don't know if it was taped when the seller honed it, but I went with tape the first time. A further mistake I made was not lapping my stone before I used it

Now, nothing I do seems to take an edge. I have watched gssixgun's video on using the Norton, and just spent like an hour trying to do circles on the 4K side. I also started with tape, but I could definitely feel that nothing was being cut. In fact, I'm sure only metal was being removed near the tang.

So I took the tape off.....big mistake? More metal was definitely being removed then, but there is a "flat" spot at the heel that just will not sharpen. There looks to be quite a bit of hone wear on the spine also, from either before me or I made it worse.

Am I doomed? What should I do with this thing? Be gentle on me please, this is my first time....

First let me say, I have exactly zero honing experience outside of a barber's hone so I may be talking out of my @ss, but if you have more than 1 razor, I would send the above mentioned razor out to be honed by a member here that offers honing services in the classifieds. That way, once you get the razor back, you'll have a reference razor to compare your honing efforts to. Whomever you decide to send the razor to, ask them to tell if they used tape or not and the method they used. If you only have the one razor, still send it out to be honed by someone who has the know how and skill to do so and you have now just given yourself a reason to add another razor or two, three, etc to your collection.

Like Steel said, The experience I have is with a 12k so none with a 4\8...yet. But I will say....you need to stop ASAP and send that bad boy out to get fixed. Step two, grab yourself any cheapo oldie you can find on ebay and practice away with that!

Yeah... I'm no expert, and have only used anything lower than the 12k a few times. I've been scared to touch my wedge so I send it out. But the people who have honed it use tape.
(disclaimer- I'm not a pro and if anyone more knowledgeable than me says my advice is bunk, ignore it)
I've had success with hollow grounds. I've been using tape just so I don't wear the spine too much while I'm learning. It sounds to me like you need to set the bevel. I'd put a layer of tape on the spine and break out the 1k. Shouldn't take too long to set a bevel on it with Sheffield (I'm assuming Sheffield as unless it's modern the bulk of wedges I've seen have come out of Sheffield) steel. It's usually kind of soft. What works on the 5 or so razors I've set bevels on has been to put on a layer of tape, do 20 circles on each side with a little pressure, check arm hair popping. If there's no popping, do 15 more. If no popping yet I do 10 X strokes on each side and that's been doing well for me.
If it pops hair after circles then I do 5 x strokes on each side and move to the 4k with a fresh piece of tape and then go in to the pyramids listed (I'm using a King 1k, 4k, 6k instead of Norton's but I'm following the Norton pyramid in the Wiki) and finish with about 50 strokes on my 12k.

These gentlemen are giving you good advice. Send that to a pro and get some ebay or flea market razors to develop your skills. Chances are your razor can be corrected by a pro honer.

Ok, thanks for the advice. I will send it out to be honed. Can anyone recommend a good honer on these boards?

You can't go wrong with any of the honers that are in the classifieds. I've read good comments from pretty much ever guy on there.

4/8 wedge -- is that one of those little American wedges like a Union Spike or a Bowdin? Or is it a smallish old Sheffield?

wedged are notoriously hard to hone, best to send it out to an expert.

Amazing! This thread is right on time. I just started honing a Bowdin True wedge on a coticule. I have a few layers of tape. It does not seem like I am getting any where. I think Coticule.be will hone one razor for free. this might be a candidate.