Thread: Honing a Wedge

Received a W&B 7/8 Wedge (Henckels scale 1) today, and as it has three little chips on the edge I thought of honing them out... but after half an hour on the Norton 4000, it looks as if only the spine is honed... the chips in the edge only got a little bit smaller.
I don't like to tape the spine so if there is any other possibility? And my second question: how long do you think this might take?

thanks,
michel

If you're seeing progress it might be doable by hand. i'd break with tradition, tape the spine and move down to 1000 grit. Either that or go to a Burr King.

X

Thanks Xman,
I followed your advise and taped the spine after all. 'Big Pressure Honing' took me only 30 minutes to remove the chips. And then I could start honing the razor in the regular way.

Strange thing I noticed was that while I normally only hone with the razor in my right hand and turn the stone once in a while for not f*cking it up, this wedge became uneven honed by my 'big pressure honing'. So I decided to change hands while honing and leave the stone at its place... Much better with even pressure on both sides now because of my left and right hand doing the job and maintaining a steady light pressure back and forward (while I would normally have a little more pressure going backwards than forwards...).

michel

Yeah, I noticed the same thing when I did my first few edge restorations. I'm sure now to position my thumb amnd forefinger in such a way as to equalise the pressure in both directions.

X

When your honing one of the W&B type wedges try angling the blade 45 degrees and use an X pattern. Focus your pressure on that portion of the edge that is coming off the bottom edge of the hone. Use a slurry on the 4K and watch the slurry move in front of the edge. This will tell you what part of the blade edge is making contact with the hone.

Hope this helps,