Thread: Frameback toe problems

Hi,

I was working on a 4/8 EAB Eskilstuna frameback, beautiful little razor.

The problem is that the toe would not pass the HHT (but HHTs are fine everywhere after about 1" from the tip.) Everything looks fine under 30x, bevel is (more or less) uniform, but the HHTs just don't work on the toe section. I do the rocking motion, 4K, 8K, strop - nada. Again - several times. Same results.

The razor is very, very light. Is it advisable to just focus on the toe for the next honing session and apply some pressure?

Thanks
Ivo

Color the bevel on the toe with a magic marker and give it a few passes on the hone, then check the bevel under the microscope. That usually makes the problem obvious...

Actually try LESS pressure. Make the toe section barely touch the hone.

Thanks for the advice

Michael, are you thinking the spine (frame) might be different width at the toe and this is causing the problem? I'll try the marker

Ilija, I did not use pressure at all for the previous rounds. I know people say use the razor's weight, but as this is unbelievably light, I thought maybe I need to supply a bit of my own... I will try without any pressure w/ the marker tonight

Cheers
Ivo

There could be any number of problems, though the spine width isn't likely to be one of them (even if it were a different width it isn't likely to cause problems).

It's just that you need to find out more about what the hone is doing at the toe, and the marker trick gives you more information than you have now. For example, some ebay blades have rotten metal at the edge, and with the magic marker you can see where the shiney metal meets up with black markered metal right where the fin should be where the metal is crumbling away (this is why you only do one or two laps, just enough to wipe off the marker but not enough to really affect the edge). If the blade is warped you'll see where parts of the bevel is hitting the hone and part isn't. If the bevel isn't all the way to the edge then you'll see a thin black margin at the very edge of the blade.

No matter how light the razor is, the last passes should be done with just the weight of the blade.