Thread: Honing a square point

Started honing a few months backs and feel pretty good about my progress. Sharpened most of my razors and got pretty good results but there's still room for improvement. One thing I'm having trouble with is honing a spike point. I always seem to mute it And that's something I don't want. I enjoy shaving with a spike point and want to be able to keep then spike, well a spike. Any advice on how to do this?

Round points and smiling blades can make the "rolling stroke" seem natural. What the square point requires, however, is that the blade stay absolutely flat on the hones, with no manipulation of it whatsoever. Use the shape of the blade as a "template" for what it needs.

While I've never honed a spike I joined in so that I can learn from what's sure to be lots of incoming advice! Ya Just Gotta Love SRP!!

Thanks ACE. I'll be able to try it out it this weekend again and I'll post back with results.

I think Ace's advice is the only answer necessary. Keep it flat through the stroke and beyond. Like when you're shooting a bow, you want to hold the aim beyond the release of the arrow. Otherwise you lift or drop the bow too soon and affect the shot.

Good luck with it. I've got one spike that bites me every time I use it, but it also happens to be my best shaver. I'm not willing to mute it because at some point I'll sell it to someone who really wants the spiky spike.

Well finally got some free time and gave it a shot today. Kept the blade flat throughout my stokes and followed the shape of the razor as my guide. Turned out better than I expected but still not quite there yet. This is going to take a few time till I finally get it right.

Another question about spike points. How do you bring back a spike that has been previously muted? On my newest ebay find the spike has been rounded quite a bit. My guess would be either having to cut off the rounded point or just bread-knife the razor until the spike comes back.

Originally Posted by pwm5024

Another question about spike points. How do you bring back a spike that has been previously muted? On my newest ebay find the spike has been rounded quite a bit. My guess would be either having to cut off the rounded point or just bread-knife the razor until the spike comes back.

I would hone it back to shape (not a fan of bread knifing but many use the method successfully).

Another suggestion is to correct it slowly over time (just hone it a little more frequently) thus you can ease into the shape that is perfect for you.

PW,
The fact that you're new to honing and still getting decent results deserves some Bravo.

I found myself exaggerating the rolling x stroke and either muting or growing the width of the bevel at the point. Ace tells you right, here. Now throw a smile into the spike point, and it cranks up the importance of following the spine/bevel curve. If the smile is pronounced, it would be hard to do without a arcing stroke, sometimes called the 1/2 moon stroke.

Depending on how urgent it is for you to have a perfectly sharp point - I'm with Unit here - a slightly elevated rate of touch up will bring it were you want it without removing all the metal and getting no use out of that wear. I have one blade where I let a user try it. He had 'the beard of steel'. It came back looking like a cross-cut saw. One divot was deeper than the rest. I honed, and the deep divot remained. It still shaved beautifully, so I let the divot remain. It keeps shaving wonderfully, so I don't worry about it. By deep divot, I can see it with crappy eyesight, but that's about all.

Keep up the good work on the stones. A few hundred blades from now, it'll be easy.

Just keep honing at a lower grit until the mute is gone, time is dependent on the amount of muting, some just mute a little and others mute the hell out of them.