Thread: Razors with blade warping

This topic kind of straddles this forum and the razors forum, but I thought I'd ask it here.

Is a razor totally unhoneable if there's a slight warp in the blade? How common is it to find a warped razor? Is it more common on thinner razors or those with heavier grinds?

I spent more time than I care to admit working on a razor another member sent me. It was a 1/4 hollow 4/8, and I could not get the thing to take an even bevel. The marker test showed that the toe and heel weren't getting honed.

Turns out the blade had a slight bow to it. When I rested it flat on one of my lapped barber hones, the toe and heel didn't seem to touch.

I've since checked some of the other razors I've been working on, and some of them seem to have the same problem to a greater or lesser extent.

Is this something you check on all of your razors?

I have a nearly full wedge Bengall 4/8 that I've been working on for a few weeks with little success. It too seems like it has a blade that's out of alignment.

Am I overreacting, or is this a pretty common problem?

Josh

Well Josh I'll tell you, I spent I don't know how many hours working on an old Rogers Frameback 6/8s razor and I tried every trick in the book and then some to get it honed with little luck. I could get a bevel on it and it looked great under magnification but it wouldn't shave arm hair worth a damn. I eventually saw when the light was just right and it was in the right angle the blade had a warp like an S in it. If its a single minor warp usually a rocking motion on the hone will do the trick but this one had essentially a compound warp though minor really made it complicated. I'm sure one of the honemeisters here could figure it out but its beyond me.

I don't know how common it is, I have about 30 vintage razors and this is the first I've encountered with a warp in it. I guess its a matter of age and useage and storage. Its hard to believe some 50+ year old razor was manufactured with a warp in it and people have been using it and someone didn't just trash it.

If you watch the Dovo video you will notice one guy checking for warpage and correcting it with a hammer and razor anvil.
I have recently heat treated several razors that I am grinding and almost all of them have warped to some degree. A number of razors that people have sent to me for honing have had some small degree of warpage. This tells me that warpage is not uncommon.
One of the most effective techniques is to use a narrow hone, approx 1- 1.5 inches wide.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I don't know how common it is, I have about 30 vintage razors and this is the first I've encountered with a warp in it.

I bet if you went back and checked all of your razors you'd find it's a lot more common than you think. I don't like using glass because the transparency can make it tricky to spot problems. I use my translucent arkansas hone which is lapped perfectly flat, and lay the razor on each side and shine a light behind it.

It's not just warping that afflicts blades but all sorts of little problems, like the spine width changing from heel to toe, or the spine and edge are both straight but not in the same plane as each other, or the problem one of my framebacks has where it looks like somebody grabbed both ends of the blade and twisted. A little bit of imperfection doesn't hurt too much especially on a full hollow razor because even a little bit of pressure flattens out the razor at the edge enough to hone ok so it's sometimes difficult to notice. I've got a theory that these razors would probably hone up just fine on a hone with a slightly rounded top, they would hone up using the same technique as you'd use on a smiling blade, only it's the hone that's smiling and not the blade.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I've got a theory that these razors would probably hone up just fine on a hone with a slightly rounded top, they would hone up using the same technique as you'd use on a smiling blade, only it's the hone that's smiling and not the blade.

Your right, try wrapping a piece of sandpaper around a piece of pipe or severly rounding the side of a hone and see what happens. Just be very careful with the amount of pressure you use.

I think when it comes down to it any razor can be honed no matter the imperfections (of course not talking about cracks and pieces missing) it just a matter of improvisation and the desire to spend the time on that one razor. To me that razor though a real antique was basically a problem razor from the start. Not only did it have a compound warp in it but the spine was really warn and the wear was very uneven so the uneveness was in probably at least 2 planes maybe 3. I sent it to Bruno to play with and if he can tame it he'll have a nice razor. It just wasn't worth anymore effort on my part.

I spent some time this evening playing with a 5/8 that has a warp in the blade. It's not as severe as the warp that prompted this thread, so I was hoping I could get it hone up, maybe with a rolling stroke.

The weird thing about this razor is that 50 strokes on the 1K doesn't seem to change the edge much.

As I checked the progress it seemed to me that the real problem I was having with this blade is that the pressure, or maybe the effect of the strokes, was uneven between the two sides. I had a visible (to the naked eye) wire edge in the middle on the back of the bow, and wire edges on the other side on the heel and toe.

So while I was able to hone the entire bevel with the rolling stroke, for some reason it wasn't equal on both sides. I put it back in the box with the other projects for now.

Josh