Thread: W&B LWSW wedge troubles.

Just my amateur thoughts;
The wedges I have, required more work of course, but after the second one, I found progress and less time spent by keeping my stones clean (built up metal after 15 to 25 strokes, removed), this kept my steel on a clean fresh cutting surface. If I pyramid, the surface is cleaned between each level. It was easier to see the progress of the cut. Wedges seem to lay out a lot of metal.

Randy, I'm glad you chimed in. Your thoughts on the matter echo my own, which makes me feel like I'm definitely headed in the right direction with blade assessment.
Dave, thanks! Same for me really. I've always got one around here that at least gets one attempt every so often. With the expectation that it's not going to be done anytime soon.

Globaldev, I agree. The very first razor I ever honed was a near wedge. I think there's a 3 page long thread around here somewhere about that little experience. lol. Learning blade assessment has been one of the important things that I didn't do enough of when starting out, and invested a lot of time in trying to hone blades blind. And I've heard of honers sending blades back to customers as "un-honeable". Some blades are just too much trouble to be worth it. I won't lose any sleep over this one. It can always sit on the shelf and look pretty anyhow. I'm thinking black horn scales, and nickel hardware. I bet it'll look grand And getting the scale wedge just right for a true wedge blade to sit deep in the scales will be a challenge I'm more interested in mastering.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

lol. Oh if only it were that simple epd. If I've learned anything since starting this hobby, it's to recognize when I'm in over my head. No razor is worth hours of honing IMO. If twenty bucks can make it shave again, and I can spend that time restoring a different razor, I'm a happy guy. I really enjoy that part more anyways. Thanks!

You're not over your head, Joe; you just have not solved the riddle of that particular blade. Once you do, the other wedges in your collection will cringe at the thought of a honing session with you.

I just got one of these....you're making me worried...lol

For enough money, I'll hone your SOCKS to shave ready.
Forget about a wedge, they are cake compared to socks!

Oh don't be worried about it GT. I would recommend making sure your spine thickness is the same on both ends before you start. As well as doing the amgic marker test prior to honing. Then making a plan of action based on whether or not the spine thickness is equal on both ends, and whether or not the entire edge is contacting the hone when the razor is laid flat. My troubles all came about because I didn't do either of those things until I'd already spent way too much time just honing away ignorantly, without evaluating the razor prior. Wedges in general, are no harder to hone than anything else(just take longer). It's just that THIS wedge is, because of it's issues. Your version of the same razor may not have the same problems, and hence, neither will you. It's not the fact that it's a wedge that is the issue. It's the spine taper, and the multifaceted smile. As opposed to a fluid smile, and a geometrically sound spine.

Magpie: I'm getting a pair of socks ready to ship out. :P

Bring em on! I have my Norton Bleach Water Stones ready and waiting!