Thread: Razor not getting an edge at the bottom or top. (rest of blade is razor sharp)

Hey guys,

Just wanted to ask the pro's, I have a blade here which I have honed a few times and decided to stop before i take too much off,
but basicaly the middle section of the blade is perfect up to the ends, so the bottom and the top part Im having trouble getting them sharp.
They are sharp but not sharp enough to shave with, Ill attach a couple of pictures maybe that will help.

thanks guys I appreciate you taking the time

Peter

I would mark the spine and edge with a black permanent marker. Take 5 laps on your finest hone and the black remaining will tell you how much contact you have with the hone. If theres a lot of black remaining, you have to remove a lot of metal or use a rolling x stroke. The pictures appear to show a frown but that's impossible to say as sometimes the pix are distorted or the viewing angle distorts them.

Moved this to the Honing section for better exposure

You take great pictures but it is still difficult to see what's right and wrong with the edge. One thing that might help is for you to tell us what hones and techniques you have used. Also, the bevel may be a bit uneven. So, parts of the bevel that are true are polishing up and shaving sharp where parts in the middle are not. The black marker will help confirm this. There may also be uneven wear on the spine and it appears to be a bit worn down (but that may just be the light reflections from the picture). I suspect this. That's great that your judgement is the shave. I have a few blades that fail HHT's but shave BBS with 2 passes. I have also had the opposite as well.

You can try methods presented on the forum to fix it (like the rolling X pattern; which is good for smilers, frowners and uneven bevels and spines) or you can just send it off to a honemeister and be done with it. Most honemeisters are very happy to provide advice on the phone I have found. While it's convenient and secure (just a bit time consuming and little cost) to send it off you must weigh that against a wonderful opportunity to learn. It is gratifying to be able to hone a razor yourself and make it BBS sharp and it's MOST gratifying to fix a razor that is for whatever reason 'abnormal'. I'm the most uncoordinated guy in the world and if I can learn this anyone can. It's all up to what you decide and how much patience you want to invest. If it were me I would get a good diagnosis of the problem and learn what I can to fix it myself. To me, the value in that exceeds the risk on this razor and the risk on your patience.

It looks to me like you've got the start of a frown in that blade, so a rolling x is definitely called for. I'd go all the way back to a bevel reset on your rolling x, and concentrate on getting the heel and toe pulled back toward the spine so they're at least even with the center of the blade. It's safest to create a little bit of a smile, which will require a bit of rolling x for the rest of the blade's honing life.

If this is one of your nicer blades, you may want to set it aside for now, and practice honing a smile into a flea-market junker. If there's a meetup near you, take it along so your meetup honemeister can demonstrate how to do this. I've seen it done, by gssixgun, and it's good to see the amount of work it takes. Not so much that it's discouraging, not so little that it's a cakewalk. And it's not so simple... you could easily ruin a good blade.

I can see that frown starting too. Hopefully you're not honing with the fingers of your other hand on the middle of the blade.

You have a problem at the heel too. 2nd last pic looks like there is a huge shiny burr at the heel for about a half inch & you are also honing into the stabiliser. I'm thinking this is not a simple hone job but I can't see much else from the pics.

This is possibly one to walk away from for now but here is an explanation/solution for the stabiliser issue:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ing-heels.html

Excellent thread there, onimaru55!