Thread: Question about smiling blades/spine setting bevel

Are spines on straight razors always flat, or on some blades such as smiling ones will the spine be different to accommodate rolling strokes?

I have this straight razor that I restored Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet and when setting the bevel (3 layers of tape) the bevel is fine everywhere I would say other than a spot between the middle and heel on one side.

I have not spent much time on it but would I just keep using rolling x strokes with tape on 1k maybe DMT 325 until full bevel is set or would I need to do some work on the spine.

I have had a straight razor where I taped the edge and used DMT to flatten spine but this was on a blade without a smile.

Picture of the bevel on the razor (3 layers of tape) I circled area where bevel is not being hit. I would say I have spent 30 minutes to an hour using 3 layers of tape and rolling x strokes
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

I just honed a smiling blade and if you put the blade flat on your hone you should notice it will contact in the center. Simply roll it to until the heel contacts and start your stroke then rolling to the toe in an x fashion.
Take your hand in front of you and bend your fingers backward, then set it on a flat surface and rock your hand. It will contact the heel of your hand then the center then the tips of your fingers. This is what you are trying to achieve.

Don't tape the edge and grind on the spine, please.

It's difficult to see hone wear from your images, but it is barely visible I guess (on one side). You should reveal the true hone wear and know what you're dealing with before resorting to DMT, or any coarser stone in general.

Now on this razor, I'd do some light passes on a mid-range stone with no tape... and see what you're getting. If you're not sure what you're seeing, please take some photos clearly showing the wear on the razor.

Usually though, one tape does it with rolling X strokes. Do 20 passes, check the bevel under magnification to see if you're honing to the apex. It is quite possible that your stroke isn't refining the part of the edge you speak about, so try to focus on that. Not meaning to say to add more pressure there, just watch it closely. Still, having a clear picture of the wear on the spine should tell us exactly where and why there may be a problem.

when I put blade on hone the middle does hit hone, and when I roll it the other parts hit. However on one side between the middle and heel it is not hitting. I took tape off and on the good side the whole spine is hitting, on the other side (bevel is not all the way across) the middle of the spine is not getting hit by stone (used 3k naniwa). That side also rocks back and forth a bit more than the other side when laying flat on the hone. I don't have great camera but here is picture of side where all of the bevel is getting hit.

On this picture below the other side of the blade shows side where not all of the spine is being hit (areas being hit by red)


If I use no tape I will have to remove a lot of metal to set the bevel here is pic with red line being bevel/hone hitting spine (problem side) and the blue line is showing where the 3k marks hit on the bevel (hits sort of above the bevel at toe and other areas)


On regular straight razor I have had one side had a rocking in it and the other didn't and I fixed by taping edge and flattening that side some. I know smiling razors will have a rocking in it naturally and why we do the x strokes, but if the middle of the spine was not getting hit would that not be a problem?

Sorry for bad picture and Pictures are sort of hard to see 3k markings with how the razor was finished but I tried to show it

You will naturally have a wider bevel on that blade from the middle of the blade and towards the toe for the most obvious reason as there is hone ware on the spine which I can see especially towards the toe, the razor should be quite easy to hone all the same you could use a smaller stone and work the back third from heel to middle using a little more pressure to develop the bevel slightly more, then use a rolling stroke and try to even things up, other than that there is another method which I have used with wedge type blades with uneven hone ware, take them to the buffer use 300 grit compound remove the existing bevel then start again using 3 layers of tape and mark the edge with a permanent maker pen this will give you a good starting reference of where you need to take the razor, I've achieved some lovely small even bevels doing this on more than a few ugly bevels many times, but remember you will always need to use the same number of layers of tape whenever you hone the razor in the future.

The nice bevel that I almost get across the both ides of blade (except in one spot on one side only) is with 3 layers of tape. I am not sure If I should use 1-2 layers so that spot is hit, or keep using 3 layers and hope it eventually starts getting hit, or doing something with the spine.

If I understand correctly, it looks like the spine may have been sanded/ground improperly on that bad side, and has a low spot now, due to which the edge isn't hitting the hones.

You could try placing a piece of tape on that spot (only on that spot), and then placing an additional tape over the whole spine, so to compensate for the lost steel. You may, as you said, need 2 layers over that small patch of tape, but it is what it is.

Is regrinding Blades a historical practice? Yes. Can a blade be damaged or ruined doing a regrind? A - silverloafcustom


I've been discussing regrinds with a friend these days, so dug up this old Instagram post of Morgan's (Maximilian here on SRP). He describes the pictured blade and it is the same, as what you're dealing with. Thought it may be interesting to read.