Thread: Correcting Frown - Spine and Edge

Hi gents,

I have a dovo special which has a frown about 1/3 from the heel. The hone wear at the spine is also consistent with the frowning edge. How should I fix this?

I think I have to bk the edge straight. But what about the spine?

I have read that I can put extra bit of tape on the frowning part of spine, but the frowning part looks very shallow to use extra layer of tape and honed.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Sy

A pic would really help, as any answer now would be a Blind stab in the dark or more often called a WAG

The wrong advice could make things worse

g

Just purely for information value, if you do breadknife the razor,you will spend a bunch "quality" hours fixing the spine until you can get an edge on the razor again.
As Glen said post a pic so we can see what is going on.
Thanks

I might be jumping the gun here, but I have bk the edge so it's now nice and straight.


But here is the picture.

im not sure what you mean by a frown in the spine. do you mean it isnt a straight-edged spine? or that there is hone wear on the spine that makes it thinner in the middle, and thicker by the heel and toe?

Well kinda hard to see what the problem was now, so just take it from here...

Instructions below assume a 1k stone

Start at about a °60 angle and start cutting a pre-bevel like honing a knife..
As soon as you can feel an edge drop to °45 and continue, again when you feel and edge bite change the angle to °20 just like a knife
Once it is as sharp as the best knife edge you have felt, stop and put 3 layers of electrical tape on it, and start doing circles probably about 60 per side with pressure should get you there..
Now remove one layer of tape and hone as usual.. The two layers will negate the bad hone wear if it is present, if it is not present then you could go to either 1 or zero..

I don't know where the problem actually lay since I can't see it now... What I mean is the spine doesn't look that bad in the pic so for all I know the frown was caused by bad honing technique and there is no spine problem...



ps: if you want to see a few vids of this being done my Youtube channel has them just google gssixgun and honing

Originally Posted by ezpz

im not sure what you mean by a frown in the spine. do you mean it isnt a straight-edged spine? or that there is hone wear on the spine that makes it thinner in the middle, and thicker by the heel and toe?

The latter. hone wear on the spine.

If I lay the spine on a flat stone, the front and back of spine is touching the stone, but not the middle. This happens on both side.

I tried putting 3 layers of tape and mmt, but the middle part doesn't get honed. And when I tried TNT, the toe and heel bite, but not the middle.


Btw, I also contacted the person I bought the razor from. He said he didn't notice the frown so he didn't mentioned it in the ad. He also said he hones with coticule.

When I read and watch videos on honing technique with coticule with half strokes and finger on the spine, esp with narrow hones. I thought that it will be very easy to develop frown as the heel doesn't get enough attention. Looks like this is one example of it.

Originally Posted by gnoils

Hi gents,

I have a dovo special which has a frown about 1/3 from the heel. The hone wear at the spine is also consistent with the frowning edge. How should I fix this?

I think I have to bk the edge straight. But what about the spine?

I have read that I can put extra bit of tape on the frowning part of spine, but the frowning part looks very shallow to use extra layer of tape and honed.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Sy

Reading on I hear you did BK the edge -- I also saw good advice from gssixgun on
what to do next.

Back to the original question.
The best answer I know is to lap your hones flat
and hone the razor correctly. Over time this will
reshape the edge and spine. Of critical importance is
that the bevel get set with care with the 1k hone with
a long term goal of removing the frown. If the spine is
involved do not use tape on the spine.

Magic marker ink testing will show that the initial honing
at 1k leaves part of the edge untouched. That is OK
because after a bit of corrective honing switch to a hone
stroke that wipes the ink fully from the edge and sets the
bevel. With the bevel set continue to 4k then 8k then
strop or a finishing hone using the same stroke that
wipes the ink.

Yes you can go nuts and try to remove the problem in one
go but that risks problems that a more deliberate strategy
does not have.

Edit: if the toe and heel of the spine touch and the middle
do not that is OK. The two points of the toe and heel will
establish the line that is the spine and maintain the angle
of the edge on the hone.

If the middle is not getting honed split your time on your 1k
hone to be 20 smooth correct strokes circles and hone strokes.
Then switch to 10 sweeping X strokes or what ever wipes
ink from the middle of the blade. Without the 20 "correct"
strokes the frown might get worse. Without the 10 sweeping
X strokes the blade will not shave in the middle. Eventually
the owner will begin to see progress or problems. If there is
good progress try 30 instead of 20 if problems surface rethink
the razor.

Noted on the not remove the problem in one go.

But my problem is still honing it to a shaving worthy condition.

I have tried circles, x strokes and sweeping x strokes. Only the last seems to touch the middle part, but still not fully.

Putting my finger on the middle seems to help but since the problem is on most of the middle part, do I put my finger to cover all the middle area?