Thread: Partial bevel?

Hi everyone,
I just received two blades in the mail. Now, they're popping hairs along most of the blades accept in certain sections. Should I start sharpening them up or do I need to reset the bevels as they're possibly incomplete?
Thanks for any responses!
Tony

Hey, Tony. 'Never a good sign to have a razor perform on part of the edge and not another. Pictures would be helpful. The most common thing I've been seeing is a razor w/ a smiling spine having been honed as if the bevel were on a straight spine. The middle gets heavy spine wear & the bevel is marginally set.
.
I've been bludgeoned into submission that the quality of your edge is never any better than the quality of your bevel. *ANY* flaw there will be fighting you the whole rest of the time. You can 'cheat' and finish on a pasted strop, but even a pasted finish is best when the stone work is done right.

Yrs ago, one thread asked the honorable sixgunner how he judged whether or not to set a bevel. He responded - "if I didn't set it - it needs to be reset". I thought he was being immodest. I don't think so anymore. I spend about 50% of my time on the bevel, 10-15% on the 4-8k level, and the rest of the time on the finish. When I'm not happy w/ the result - my clues on the problem are almost always at the bevel.

Should you need a hand w/ the edges - pm me. 'Just pick up postage & bubble envelope.

Originally Posted by pinklather

Hey, Tony. 'Never a good sign to have a razor perform on part of the edge and not another. Pictures would be helpful. The most common thing I've been seeing is a razor w/ a smiling spine having been honed as if the bevel were on a straight spine. The middle gets heavy spine wear & the bevel is marginally set.
.
I've been bludgeoned into submission that the quality of your edge is never any better than the quality of your bevel. *ANY* flaw there will be fighting you the whole rest of the time. You can 'cheat' and finish on a pasted strop, but even a pasted finish is best when the stone work is done right.

Yrs ago, one thread asked the honorable sixgunner how he judged whether or not to set a bevel. He responded - "if I didn't set it - it needs to be reset". I thought he was being immodest. I don't think so anymore. I spend about 50% of my time on the bevel, 10-15% on the 4-8k level, and the rest of the time on the finish. When I'm not happy w/ the result - my clues on the problem are almost always at the bevel.

Should you need a hand w/ the edges - pm me. 'Just pick up postage & bubble envelope.

I figured that I would have to reset the bevel I just wasn't 100 percent sure but now that I know I'm going to work on them both tonight. Thanks for the offer if I need a hand I will PM you!

Hi Tony,

First, start them at, say, 4k--do a 4k/8k pyramid. If they're just less keen because of the previous honer's idiosyncracies, you can get them up to speed without removing too much metal. Always start on the fine side.

If that doesn't do it, read on...

Reset the bevels. If they're less keen in certain sections, there may be problems with the original grind. I bought a brand-new pro-honed Dovo stainless years ago that shaved like it had been pro-honed, but when it became my turn to touch it up I discovered that the spine/grind was off, and the pro honer had worked some localized pressure tricks to make the whole edge as good as it should be.

To me, that's not as good as a razor should be. I like them to hone easily, without drama. That blade has sat unused for a couple of years, waiting for me to get bored enough with honing my others to put in the hard work of not only setting the bevel but also setting the spine.

To that end, I'd recommend honing without tape, so you get the spine and the bevel aligned to one another. A more advanced honer may chime in with different advice, but that's how I've treated slightly wayward blades of my own.

A blade that's more than slightly wayward may need much more experienced attention than I'd bring to it. If you have any meetups happening near you, put these blades aside and take them along for the meetup's best honer to demonstrate on. I've watched Glen (gssixgun) resurrect blades at the Denver meetup; it's pretty cool to see--and humbling, too.

I'd say if you can't get a good bevel set in two or three tries, set them aside before you erode away too much spine.

Good luck and best wishes.

Just for kicks I'd try shaving with them. You know what they will do popping, or not popping hair. Find out whether they will give an acceptable shave and you'll have a better idea of how important the aforementioned tests are ..... or aren't.

Pinklather's post went up while I was typing mine (Hey Pinklather!). If you decide to have someone else do them, and you don't care about seeing it done, by all means send them to him. I've shaved off one of his edges and it was verrry nice.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Hi Tony,

First, start them at, say, 4k--do a 4k/8k pyramid. If they're just less keen because of the previous honer's idiosyncracies, you can get them up to speed without removing too much metal. Always start on the fine side.

If that doesn't do it, read on...

Reset the bevels. If they're less keen in certain sections, there may be problems with the original grind. I bought a brand-new pro-honed Dovo stainless years ago that shaved like it had been pro-honed, but when it became my turn to touch it up I discovered that the spine/grind was off, and the pro honer had worked some localized pressure tricks to make the whole edge as good as it should be.

To me, that's not as good as a razor should be. I like them to hone easily, without drama. That blade has sat unused for a couple of years, waiting for me to get bored enough with honing my others to put in the hard work of not only setting the bevel but also setting the spine.

To that end, I'd recommend honing without tape, so you get the spine and the bevel aligned to one another. A more advanced honer may chime in with different advice, but that's how I've treated slightly wayward blades of my own.

A blade that's more than slightly wayward may need much more experienced attention than I'd bring to it. If you have any meetups happening near you, put these blades aside and take them along for the meetup's best honer to demonstrate on. I've watched Glen (gssixgun) resurrect blades at the Denver meetup; it's pretty cool to see--and humbling, too.

I'd say if you can't get a good bevel set in two or three tries, set them aside before you erode away too much spine.

Good luck and best wishes.

Will do- I actually have a meet up in 2 weeks so that works out perfectly! Thanks!
T

Where did you get them from and were they sold as shave ready? If not, I always start on the 1k just to take out the guesswork. I find that, on average, it saves a lot of time to just set the bevel and know its set. I will say that, with a blade I think is close, I only do 10 light X strokes before checking the edge. Then I assess the edge and do what's needed.

And don't forget the magic marker test--run a marker along the edge, then take some honing laps and see if you remove all or just some of the marker. That'll tell you a lot. Put a mark along the spine, too, for kicks, to see if any of the spine fails to make contact with the hone.

FWIW, I took my own medicine last night. 'A slightly warped Dovo Best that I had set the bevel on a couple yrs back. I've gotten better at it, and when I wasn't happy w/ its response, soaked the Chosera 1k & spent a good 15-20 min trying to further reduce the warp. It could not take the warp out, but made all the other stones easier to use. This particular one now wears the finest edge it's ever had. HHT was lopping 1.5" from point of hold on a thick (.0033" avg) hair. The test will be in a while. My only concern is - is it too sharp - will the edge hold through a full shave. Over honing is quite rare, but I've done it before. First strokes are out of this world, then it goes downhill throughout the shave, having been made too frail to withstand normal use.