Thread: Newbie needs help determining Appropriate Approach to Slight Frown Removal

Hello All,

I'm new to the world of straights but truly love it already. Right now I'm trying to learn honing.
I have 3 razors, one I bought shave ready, another at an antiques market, and the latest from ebay. The second razor I was able to bevel set and hone into a condition on par my
first shave ready razor. The newest addition though, I'm not sure how best to approach. It has a slight (is it?) frown and I wanted to get advice as to the best technique to repair
it. I've attached two pictures below, please forgive the quality, I'm challenged when it comes to taking any sort of photograph.



The stones I have are a 220/1k, Norton 4k/8k and an ardennes coticule.

Thanks and Best Regards,

That's not really all that bad a frown. My first inclination would be to hone it and shave with it, and see how it goes. I would avoid any urge to "breadknife" it. I would just hone it properly, honing it as if it were a slightly smiling blade and allow that to gradually alter the shape of the blade. I don't think I'd have any trouble shaving with it just as it is. A slight frown is dangerous on a woman's face, but it is not so bad on a blade.

This can be fixed if you want. Hone with straight strokes and if you need use both hands on the razor and just hone up and down. Eventually it will fix itself.

No worries fella', the blade is not in any bad fix, you should just hone it up and enjoy, looks like a decent Str8 the way it is with the slight smile.

IMHO/YMMV tinkersd

Thanks for all the advice gentlemen. I'll go ahead and hone it as suggested and see how it comes along.

This is my second F. Herder A Sons straight. I seem to see quite a few of them around in Holland, ebay.nl or marktplaats.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Hone that razor Toward a smile it will turn that frown upside down within a couple of honing cycles

Jimmy will be along I am sure with a link to the old Barber's manual with instructions on one way of how to do it

The other way is to watch Spazola's vid, Philadelph's vid, and My vid, about how to hone a smiling blade, although we all use a slightly different style, we all use the same approach for honing a smiling edge, which also works for honing toward a smile...

Hone happy, it makes your razors smile more

ME? I would just breadboard it and get it over with! (kidding........................Really!)

^ Funny

gssixgun,

I watched the videos you recommended, I'll keep them in mind when I hone the blade.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Jimmy will be along I am sure with a link to the old Barber's manual with instructions on one way of how to do it

Here is the link Glen mentioned. From the SRP library help files. It is a PDF of a 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing and stropping. I found it very helpful. Some guys who've seen it found it helpful and others did not.

Since being around awhile I've found the best way to deal with frowning razors. Don't buy them.

In my experience a smiling/frowning blade will only be made worse by trying to straighten the edge without factoring in the spine. Most of the time it seems like smiles and frowns are due to slight warps in the spine and if you dont work on both it just turns into a mess. I would say to try and hone it up normally, maybe try marking the bevel with a sharpie, do one stroke, and see if the whole edge makes good contact with the stone. If its all making contact you should be able to get it plenty sharp!