Thread: trouble honing

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Looks like a small frown. The stabilyzer at the heel is getting in your way. Search "fixing a frown" and see what comes up. The short answer is that the stabilyzer is gonna have to be reprofiled, and lot of time spent bringing the edge back in line. I wouldn't choose this blade as my first, tenth, or 100th blade to learn on. It's nothing too serious, but it will take a lot of time to fix, even if you were experienced.

thanks for that. really should have guessed it had a slight frown as tip and heel have the bevel set but middle no.

if the middle set and the heel/tip wernt then it would be a smiling


thanks ill have a look later

If you want to find out if the blade is warped sight down the spine with the tip closer to your face and carefully analize what you see. It should be perfectly symetrical. Look at it from the opposite direction with the tang closest to your face. If you can detect a bow in the spine that that changes direction as you switch ends then you have a warped spine.
You can do the same with the cutting edge but you have a shorter sight plane and it is harder to detect.
If there is no bow/warp, it is likely that improper honing and/or using a hone with a crowned surface could be the cause of the slight frown.
Many or the antique English razors are warped, with some warped bad enough that a quick glance down the spine will indicate the bow.
These conditions require that the technique used in honing them be adjusted to fit the individual problems incountered.
(more pressure/contact with the hone where more metal is to be removed and less/no pressure/contact where no metal is to be removed)
Good luck to you, and I hope you can work your way through to a great hone job!