Thread: pyramid

what exactly is a pyramid? also when you hone a razor does the spine come in contact with the hone? what keeps the spine frome being ground down ? i did not see any information that was very good at explaining this in the other forums.i will get lynns cd at some point

The pyramid refers to going back and forth between a coarser and finer hone in a set pattern... most notably the Norton 4000/8000 hone. By doing so it is believed that you can avoid overhoning with it's resulting wire edge which is bad for straight razors. There is a pyramid chart available from the library section on this site.

The spine is meant to be in contact with the hone during honing. It is believed that when honing the edge, the spine wears in step with the edge so as to maintain the edge geometry. In practice, some users tape the spine of mint/elaborately decorated razors when honing to protect the decorations and it appears to have little effect on the final outcome but is typically only done on such fine razors or when having to hone significant chips out of the edge which would add a significant amount of wear on the spine. If you hone with tape protecting the spine, you will have to use the tape every time you go to touch up the edge... thus only those with fancy blades will go through the trouble most times.


Regards

Christian

Originally Posted by p379

what exactly is a pyramid? also when you hone a razor does the spine come in contact with the hone? what keeps the spine frome being ground down ? i did not see any information that was very good at explaining this in the other forums.i will get lynns cd at some point

The first thing to do is purchase Lynn's CD. It will answer 90% of your questions.

Two things need to touch the hone, the edge of the razor and the spine. Both at the same time. They are to be flat on the hone with the pressure evenly distributed along the length of the razor and with equal pressure on the spine and the edge.
The stroke is slow, about 1 -1.5 seconds. Some people, including me, have slightly more torque, pressure, on the edge than the spine. The amount of pressure is very light on the finishing hones.

Hope this helps,