Thread: Honing a trapezoidal blade?

As someone else said,I would figure out the previous owners stroke and keep at it. This may also be a prime opportunity for you to do a regrind!

Motion carries. I'll rehone it tomorrow, using my best approximation of the original honers stroke. Thanks fellahs!

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Well he just passed last winter. He was a local barber who retired many years ago, and this was out of his collection. As sketchy as I think it is when someone says that, I do have it on good provenance. He may never have used this one though I guess. It might have just been something he picked up after retiring as a memento. But all his blades were like this. It's fairly easy to copy the stroke. It's a typical knife sharpening type stroke I'd use. So that's what made me think they all came from the same sharpener.

I was hoping I'd be able to figure a way to make it right again. But we'll see.

You could very well be right that he used it and kept it as a memento. " I shaved X amount of guys a week for 2 years with this... I made a lot of money!"

The trouble in my mind is that if the toe is honed out the only way to make it "right" again is to hone out the heel. It would be aesthetically pleasing but both ends would be junk.

If you can't make it work as is add it to your collection with the memory of a well used tool. Think of how many dates, weddings, or business meetings it helped.

On the other end of the spectrum you could save the scales until another with a good blade but cracked scales came along.

Tim

I missed your last post. Good luck! You have nothing to loose.

Tim

Actually, you know, just thinking, but the last user's shaving method is just as important as his honing method. I use the heel a lot when I shave and the belly; I really don't consciously use the toe at all. In fact, find some of my razors a little on the narrow side to allow for accommodating my thumb under the tang and still allowing for room between my thumb and face. I hope you can visualise what I'm talking about. So maybe the last owner used the toe a lot in his shaving routine as well? Maybe the toe is quite a bit sharper than the heel? I'd actually really like to see a photo; and it'd be interesting to see a photo of it lying on a hone; or even better, pushing the pool of water across the hone. I'm really concentrating on the 'pushed pool of water' when I hone lately. However, I guess the pool of water can 'lie' if the hones not flat?

A Trappa what ??

Mostly I go for keeping the geometry established by the previous owner and making it shaveable again.

If it's a special blade, I might take the time to try correcting it. In that case, I would just grind away at the heel on a low grit stone until it's close, and then do X's to even it out.

I wouldn't advise regrinding . Unless you're a skilled razor grinder , odds are that it won't work out well . OTOH , the only way to become a skilled razor grinder , is to start grinding some razors . The first few will be your "mistake razors" .

Yeah I'm not willing to let this razor be a mistake razor. It's just barely out of whack. In fact, I doubt many could even see it without an "in hand" inspection. Anyhow...here I go!

On youtube there are 3 different people that shows how to hone a smiling blade, the same technique can be used to hone "Toward" a smiling blade...

If you start honing toward a smile you should get a nice profile and still be able to shave as it progresses..

Alex/Philadelph
Charlie/Spazola
and me

Check out the "Smiling Blade" honing from all three of us, we all use a similar technique, and it should slowly correct your minor geometry issue
This way you are not doing drastic changes just a slow correction through the next few honing cycles