Thread: Beginning to get why honemeisters charge extra for wedges...

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Are drop dead perfect pro honers on this site that charge $15 a blade,most take 15 mins to do,JMO,granted some may take a bit more.

Wow - that would be a dream come true! If only I hadn't got a cup of coffee in my hand when I read Pixelfixed's wierd post and laughed my head off - now I have to clean up the desk. You should see the majority of razors I get sent. Some want the last rites, not honing.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Wow - that would be a dream come true! If only I hadn't got a cup of coffee in my hand when I read Pixelfixed's wierd post and laughed my head off - now I have to clean up the desk. You should see the majority of razors I get sent. Some want the last rites, not honing.

Regards,
Neil

Not talking wedges,Or blades with issues, or resto work here guys.

Ive honed a few wedges. Depending on how off they are I have used 100 grit wet/dry on my dmt. It saves a lot of time. After 325,600 1200 dmt. then up from there. In between grits I slightly dull the edge on the side of a glass, this gets rid of microchips from the low grit that develop on the edge. I hate tape! So if the spine has to take a little beating, so be it. I will never have to remove that much metal again.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Not to mention there is more to honing someone else's blade than just honing it. There is also time in the communication with that person, often some time giving the blade a light cleaning (cause why not?), shave testing, stropping after the shave test, packing it up, taking it to the PO, etc.

This is so true. Even a hollow ground blade needs to be looked at under a loop for me just to make sure what I start with! For me, Best case is 30 minutes..

I dunno, a modern wedge which to me is just a heavy grind hollow may not be too bad to hone. Anything that is a near wedge grind from the likes of W&B from 100 years ago or more with lots of hone wear is a recipe for frustration for a newbie. That is if they are mostly like the only one I own, still can't stand the sight of that razor. Spent a lot of time on it and still not 100% happy with it.

Bob

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Are drop dead perfect pro honers on this site that charge $15 a blade,most take 15 mins to do,JMO,granted some may take a bit more.

Here let's fix this for Ya

Our "Drop Dead Gorgeous" Professional Honers on SRP would mostly take 15 minutes to hone a razor, this is of course AFTER the bevel has been set... IME (in my experience) Setting the bevel is where the majority of the grunt work happens, and can take from 5 minutes to multiple sessions on multiple days...




To the op learn to walk away, really, you can do more harm then good by sitting there that long grinding away on the steel...

When I am honing I start all the razors at the same time and run through the bevel setting routine, if one doesn't pop the first time through it goes to the end of the line.. As I rotate back to it I try and set the bevel once again, if it doesn't happen, I set it aside and continue on with the rest of the razors. This gives my hands and muscles time to relax and move on to sucessfull honing.. The PITA razor gets moved to the next days honing schedule, and the cycle begins again. Basically try 2-3 times with your routine at one sitting, if it dosn't happen then walk away and come back to it later or the next day.

Originally Posted by bill3152

Ive honed a few wedges. Depending on how off they are I have used 100 grit wet/dry on my dmt. It saves a lot of time. After 325,600 1200 dmt. then up from there. In between grits I slightly dull the edge on the side of a glass, this gets rid of microchips from the low grit that develop on the edge. I hate tape! So if the spine has to take a little beating, so be it. I will never have to remove that much metal again.

Holy crap is there any steel left after that ???

Yes sir! If I take it off with a 100 or 8k, Im only taking off what has to come off. 100 works much faster. and as soon as it grabs the top of the thumbnail, I stopped.

Originally Posted by BobH

I dunno, a modern wedge which to me is just a heavy grind hollow may not be too bad to hone. Anything that is a near wedge grind from the likes of W&B from 100 years ago or more with lots of hone wear is a recipe for frustration for a newbie. That is if they are mostly like the only one I own, still can't stand the sight of that razor. Spent a lot of time on it and still not 100% happy with it.

Bob

Bob brings up a point here...

An NOS Heavy blade takes no longer to hone then any other razor, what kicks these sideways is the 100+ years of bad hone wear..

Now comes the conundrum that has bugged me for years.. WHY ???

These razors were shaving when their owners set them aside, they "Supposedly" were honing using much the same techniques that we use, so WHY when you start to hone with that worn out spine (Wish they knew about tape) does the bevel not match the spine wear ?????? Why do we have to drastically re-set the bevel to get the spine and bevel to match, or grind down the spine and have a huge wide bevel now ????

Think about the why, I haven't figured it out yet...

Originally Posted by bill3152

Yes sir! If I take it off with a 100 or 8k, Im only taking off what has to come off. 100 works much faster. and as soon as it grabs the top of the thumbnail, I stopped.

That simply isn't true, you are also digging gouges out of the sides of the bevel, so either you have to work that back to solid steel or you have created a weak edge.. Think about it...