Two new Razors, no straight edges ...

I bought two new razors, a TI "Art Deco Floral Design" and a DOVO with Bucote scales from the usual places.

I finally got around to honing them and can now see that the TI has an "S" curve to the blade, and the Bucote DOVO has a double "S" curve ... alternate sides of the blade have deeper polish/hone (the TI switches a deeper polish from side-to-side for ~1/3 of the middle part of the blade, the DOVO crosses over 5 times).

I considered putting them to a courser stone to take the edge back to a common plane, then decided that perhaps this is a normal thing and I should ask about it first.

I have one other DOVO Classic with a straight edge, except one side hones/polishes deeper than the other. Honed & stropped, it's a pretty good shave.

Are these common "defects"? Bad craftsmanship? Worthy of a return and complaint? or just hone the crap out of them until the edge stays down the middle (more or less)?

All three came out of (what appeared to be) factory sealed containers. All three have been carefully handled, and the edges protected to the greatest degree possible.

So, what's the call?


As usual, your assistance and advice is greatly appreciated!

Scott

I suspect this is caused by the heightened demand for straights from all manufacturers. It is shoddy workmanship. A little curve is ok and seems pretty normal but S curves and the like I think are just not acceptable. I would send them back. If you have to keep them I suggest maintaining them with a pasted strop instead of a hone.

I'm not a big fan of honing blades down to a common plane. If it's that bad I think it should go back. A small curve in the blade can be compensated for via technique but what you're describing would take infinite patience to hone on a stone IMHO. Hope that helps.

Best Regards,
EL

Are you saying the actual blade has the curve or is it the bevel is uneven? If its a bevel issue that's a very common problem and unless really severe won't affect the shaving. if the actual blade has an S curve to it I would send it back. That is unacceptable at those or any other prices.

Thanks to you both for the input.

Regarding the wavy edge: The blade at the spine is straight, the edge is scalloped on both.

The effect would be (for the single "S" curve razor, looking at the edge; side A to the left, Side B to the right):

The bevel on side A, starting at the heel, is deeper than the bevel on side B, diminishing in depth on side A, increasing on side B..

As you follow the edge toward the point, about 1/6 of the way up, the bevel is roughly equal, then diminishes such that Side A has nearly no visible bevel by the 1/3 mark.

Continuing towards the point, the bevel gets deeper and shallower on alternate sides. There's definitely a wave along the edge.

I believe I"m going to take them to the wheel and go for a common plane. I've got a superfine grit japanese waterstone for my Tormek. This might be interesting.

Between this and the Bait & Switch this place pulled on the Dovo Special, I don't think I want to buy anything there anymore. Bad product, shipping something cheaper than I ordered, and they're unresponsive to my email ... no way to run a business: I'm done with them.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Scott

If there is a warranty you may get a replacement, but may be void if you take to to a wheel.
Try giving them a phone call... sometimes this works better than an email.

You could also post a few photos... more eyes may help with a better diagnosis.

Hope this helps my friend.

If you mean the width of the bevel varies along the edge but the edge itself is fine and the spine is fine then it is simply a slight variation in the thickness of the blade... I would NOT take those razors to the Tormek.... I know you have the 4k Japanese wheel on it but I still would not try to improve on the grinding that way. If the razors hone normally, the varying bevel width is of no consequence. Warped razors do crazy things like rock on the hone when honing one side and rest flat on the other unless you use an x motion on the hone in which case as the spine comes off the edge, the blade begins to drop because the spine is actually banana shaped (and this does play havoc with your bevel angles and makes it very hard to hone well). I have a NOS razor that was badly ground on one side which left a hump on the spine on that side. I may take that spine to the diamond hone to just straighten it so it will lay flat when honing, the appearance of the bevel, unless it's to the extreme, is not really an issue. Very few of my razors have near perfect width bevels on both sides (NONE are Perfect) but all hone very nicely, so I just don't worry about it.

Christian loves honing massively warped blades. He's said so recently.;):shrug:;)

I think I understand your description of the problem. If it's a bevel of varying width but the EDGE lies flat on the hone on both sides, I agree with others, I'd roll with it. Do the marker test if you haven't already and see if the marker disappears across the entire edge on both sides at or about the same time. If so, I'd hone it up and shave with it.

IF, you do the marker test and a portion of the edge has marker on it pretty much what seems like it would be indefinitely, I would box it up and ship it on back. I did this with a TI Super Gnome. It rocked on the hone very noticeably. I didn't feel it was my job to correct their mistake since I paid good money for that new razor. It's about 5 months later and I still don't have a replacement, but.....TI did acknowledge that they received it. So at least I'll get another one eventually.

Chris L

OK, let's try this as a description of the issue:

If I took a well-hones edge, then tapped it on the edge of a metal table such that the edge was displaced laterally (forming, as viewed directly down at the edge, an "S"), then hit the stones/hones with it, that's what I have.

The bumps on one side then hone to a deeper bevel. Being that it's an "S" (actually an "S" and a half), I have two bumps (i.e., deep bevel) on one side. close to the Heel and Point, with a single bump (deep bevel) for the 1/3 span in the middle of the blade on the other side.

The other razor does this pattern twice (well. almost twice) along the length of the blade.

I've got the Tormek stone trued up (you're right, it's a 4k Japanese stone), I'll be running the razors sometime this week when I get time. I don't feel like screwing with the vendor, who sucks at customer service and ignores my email anyway, or the manufacturer / distributer waiting for them to decide that it's probably something I did, which I didn't, argue, repeat.

I don't need the frustration. At least this way I can make it a learning experience, albeit a potentially expensive one. I do a lot of knife work and I hand sharpen my woodworking tools, so I'm not going into this totally clueless (I hope). I think I can press the edge back to near-true, then rough in a new edge and work from there.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

I'd keep trying to send them back. If they are still unresponsive, contact your credit card company, and tell them that you paid for one thing, they send you something cheaper, and broken, and they will not answer your requests.

I did this recently with a company that did something similar, the company wouldn't respond to my CC company so they reversed the charges, and I didn't have to pay for the crap they sent me.

BTW, what company is this? I know you may not want to say publicly, but it would sure help the rest of us to not have to deal with them in the future.

Good luck
Adam