Start over, or leave alone?

[bruseth]

I have a Dovo carbon steel, ⅝ inch, Black Star razor. I honed it recently, and it shaves better than when I got it, even though it was sold as ‘shave ready.’ Although it shaves better now, I don’t think it’s as good as it could get. I used a Parker shavette the other night, and it went through the whiskers effortlessly, almost as if they weren’t there. Not so with the Dovo. I get a considerable amount of tugging and pulling when using it, especially around the chin area.


I honed the Dovo using a 1000 grit King stone, a 4000 grit King stone, and a 8000 grit King stone; all stones that I use when I’m doing wood working. I have other stones, including a medium grit DMT stone, and two Japanese finishing stones, one being a Blue stone (about 3000 grit, I think) and the other a #4 finishing stone. I didn’t use either of the finishing stones when honing my razor though. I set the bevel using the 1000 grit Kings stone. After working on that stone, all of the serrations on the edge were uniform (I used a 30X lighted loupe to check), and I was able to shave arm hair with it - so I figured my edge was set properly. I then finished up on the 4000 and 8000 grit stones using the same kind and number of strokes I saw on the honing videos from Lynn and gssixgun. After that, I finished up by stropping it using the fabric and the leather sides of my strop. The bevel on each side is not uniform though - I think the blade may be slightly warped along its length. On one side the bevel is wide in the center and less wide on the toe and heel. On the other side it’s just the opposite - thin in the center and wide on the ends. As I said though, the grind marks were uniform, so rather than waste away a lot of blade by trying to get the bevel to be of equal width along the blade on both sides, I decided to leave well enough alone.


My question is whether I should go back to setting the bevel and working my way through the whole process, go back to the 4000 grit stone and work my way up, or should I just leave it alone and live with the pulling and tugging? Right now school is almost over for the year and summer will be here (I’m a teacher), at which time my paychecks stop. So it’s not a good time to buy a nice Naniwa 1200 stone (if that’s what is needed), or to even spend the $20 to send it to an expert. I pretty much have to handle my problem by myself due to my financial situation. But thank goodness I have this forum to turn to! So, any ideas/suggestions? Any help would be much appreciated.

[regularjoe]

I say go back and start over then. I'm not an expert, but what do you have to lose? You want to fix it yourself, and you don't feel the edge is as good as it can get. Something that's been working better for me is to just work on it a little every night. I used to do marathon 4 hour attempts, and never got anywhere. It was terribly frustrating and bad for my confidence. If that's your only blade, and it's no good tonight, use the shavette. Try again tomorrow. Eventually, you'll either get used to it, or find what works best. I don't think there is any need to buy any other stone. If it's not shaving well at 8k, it won't shave well at 12 either.

[AndrewK]

Are your stones clean and lapped flat and what stroke are you using?

[cpcohen1945]

. . . The bevel on each side is not uniform though - I think the blade may be slightly warped along its length. On one side the bevel is wide in the center and less wide on the toe and heel. On the other side it’s just the opposite - thin in the center and wide on the ends. As I said though, the grind marks were uniform, so rather than waste away a lot of blade by trying to get the bevel to be of equal width along the blade on both sides, I decided to leave well enough alone. . .

That's the typical bevel pattern of a warped blade, honed on a flat stone. You can hone it forever, you'll never get an even (constant-width) bevel; the blade geometry doesn't allow it.

However, such a razor will shave fine, if the bevel is truly set. If it looks good under a real 30x loupe, maybe it is.

Three suggestions:

. . . Hone on the 8K stone for 20 laps or so, with _extremely_ light pressure -- as light as you can get it.
. . . That may help. An 8K stone
. . . with "gentle" pressure (IMHO) gives an edge that will _almost_ shave.

. . . Get some CrOxide paste, and make a pasted strop to use after the 8K. That has helped me, sometimes.

. . . Strop it _a lot_ -- 100 laps, minimum. 200 laps is reasonable.

And if none of that works, think about using the mailbox.

Charles

[AndrewK]

...And if none of that works, think about using the mailbox.

Charles

I have seriously considered using a hammer but the mailbox is more economical if those thoughts start arising!

How is your stropping? Maybe your honing is fine!

But 90% of honing is in setting the bevel. That's good the scratches are consistent when you checked at the 1k level and it shaved arm hair but is the edge a perfect 'v' all the way along? A great test for this is the Thumb Nail Test(TNT) using just the weight of the blade drag it along a moistened thumb nail - it should dig in grab all the way along. The TNT should only be used in the bevel setting stage as it can quickly undo any work beyond that. Keep doing sets of 10-15 until you get a solid pass from the TNT, then do maybe 10 super light finishing strokes on the 1k and check for a positive Arm Hair Test(AHT) if yes then you can be confident in a solid, smooth bevel set. A bit of pressure at the beginning of the bevel setting stage can be your friend just don't flex the blade! As you finish on the 1k and work on 4 or 8k as previously stated it needs to be super light. This is a great read and hope it helps: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-1k-shave.html

The edge off 1k is suprising when the bevel is set correctly. Most hones in the 1K region leave an edge that performs according to HHT-3 when the edge meets it's limit on the hone. This test does have a catch however - the hair does need to be 'calibrated'

If you have any doubts that parts of the blade are not contacting the stone at the 1k stage then put some Sharpie or indellible ink along the bevel and see if it gets wiped off by the stone after a few strokes. Rubbing alcohol removes any Sharpie left by slips of the hand. If the stroke won't wipe the ink off the bevel, an adjustment will be needed: http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...honing_a_razor and YouTube search 'gssixgun' for more variations.