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

I have found that flattening the extreme edge of the bevel very slightly up to 4k eliminates then gouges. I do lots of circle on the 325,600 1200 4 and 8 as well as the 12. The bevel is highly polished, and since I have a very light hand with my honing, I find I don't end up with deep scratches. I know you are more knowledgeable about this than I am. Ive honed maybe 70 blades. For myself only. The alternative IMO would have been at least an hour on the 325, and I still would have to deal with the scratches from the 325. It actually turned out to be a very good shaver.

Like I said "Think" about it,,,, you are assuming I am putting down your technique, which I am not, I am trying to help you here...

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.

I am not one of those advocates of running the edge on glass. I prefer to hone chips out with the stone. YMMV.

I hate tape too, but ..... I use it in the bevel setting stages of a heavy wedge, and maybe others, depends. If you have a hell of a lot of metal to remove saving the spine is a good thing IMO. When the bevel is set with tape going to the 1k, or the 4k, without tape doesn't take that long to get the bevel set to the higher grit level, and to go up from there.

I've done it both ways and it is better to get the years of wear and abuse cleared up with tape. Once that is done moving along without the tape is fine, and so is continuing with one layer, whichever way you want to go. IME it is a better bet. YMMV.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Like I said "Think" about it,,,, you are assuming I am putting down your technique, which I am not, I am trying to help you here...

I didn't take offense to your comment at all. Im a noob when it comes to this stuff I know. people like yourself have taught me many things which would not be possible without forums like this. I greatly appreciate all your input here. I admire straight shooters that speak their mind on things that they are well versed in. And you are helping me and others with your knowledge and experience. Beside I been married for 24 years! There aint nothing you guys can say that hasn't been said before! LOL. Thanks

Originally Posted by gssixgun

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...

Might be due to the fact that we flatten our hones? I look at old hones that are dished out to the point that they look like a skateboard ramp, and wonder how anyone could have used that thing successfully.

To the OP, most of the instruction that is out there is done on razors in decent shape. This is meant to help teach new guys the fundamentals of honing so that they can learn with practice and become successful. The biggest problem is that many of the razors new guys take on are tough to hone razors even for experienced people. We have done videos on rolling X strokes and other techniques that try to provide alternatives to these tough razors but nothing takes away from the time and practice needed to be able to get some of these beasts shaving again. I have yet to see the person who can take a badly unevenly flattened razor where the spine wear and reflective bevel wear don't match on both sides be able to hone that razor up to shaving glory in 15 minutes no matter what technique they use. Sometimes these nasty razors can be quite frustrating even if you have honed thousands of razors and they can take hours and multiple sittings to produce a shaving edge.

So to me, this is the challenge. You can become more frustrated with a razor and at the end of the day maybe never get it where it needs to be or spend the time to eventually start producing good results consistently. I pretty much look at every one of these razors as a challenge and get a lot of satisfaction in getting each one of them to shave. That's easy for me to say now as it took years of frustration and time to get to this point and I have put many a razor away to come back to at a later time.

There is no perfect answer when it comings to honing razors. The razors are as different as each of us and our abilities in addition to all the available media and regiments out there. Personally, I think a lot of the old wedges made it to peoples drawers and storage trunks as a result of not being able to hone them and shave with them.

In any case, hang in there. The more you take on these kinds of razors the better you will get with all the honing you do.

Have fun.

Thanks guys for all the tips and encouragement, Ill be taking another stab at it this evening and most likely a chunk of time a night until I get this sucker done. Ill be sure to keep you guys posted on the progress and come back for help as needed.

wow, much better results today! the bevel must have been close from yesterday because it took me less than an hour to pass the marker test and pop hair. The 6k side, and barbers homes followed and then 200 laps on leather. I have to say it could still get much better but it did shave the stubble off my face without cuts or bad burn. Thanks again to all those who gave me pointers it helped a lot.

Nice when it works out, isn't it?

Yes it is, and a wee bit addicting, its just regrettable it was the only project I had out here. Though it sounds like I may have a half a dozen or more new projects when I stop by the barbers next as he still claims he has boxes of razors that won't shave any more. he agreed to sell a few to me on the cheap and possibly more if I can get them back into fighting shape