Thread: W&B Special with a frown

Hi all;

I just picked up this W&B Special from an online antique seller. I was a bit hasty in pushing the "buy now" button, as I notice that the edge has a slight frown to it. Other than that, and some minor staining on the blade, the razor seems okay. I've done some searching to see if the frown can be honed out, and from what I've read here, it seems like it can. I was hoping to get some opinions from the learned honers to see if mine is salvageable, or just something nice to look at.

Thanks in advance,

Larry

Having had some experience with that situation I would advise you not to breadknife it. That seems like the shortest route to a proper blade profile but IME it leads to way more work to get an edge back.

What I have done is to hone with the spine slightly off of the stone until the desired profile is accomplished. You could also use like 3 pieces of electrical tape if your not comfortable with maintaining the correct angle.

Here is the 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing from the SRP Wiki help files. On page 24 you'll find an illustration of a frown and another of a correct blade profile as well as text on how to avoid the former and accomplish the latter. Sending it out to a honemeister is another alternative of course.

Edit, looking at the photo if I was doing it I would not do much to the heel but focus on taking it out from the point back to where it begins. Just what I would do.

By that photo it's hard to tell if the frown is more than an optical illusion due to uneven bevel. If you have the razor in hand set it blade side down perpendicular to the stone. You can gauge the frown or smile by how much contact the razor makes (straight all the way across means straight edge).

That razor is definitely salvageable either way. You could either breadknife that quickly (may take off more metal than you'd like), work 45 degree circles (hold the razor at 45 to the stone and work off enough metal), or just hone as normal on a 1000 grit stone (or lower) to remove the issue. That will be a great razor to learn on. Have fun.

Thanks for the info guys. I have no business putting a razor to a hone yet, so I'll leave that to someone more qualified that myself. Here's another photo of the other side of the razor for comparison. The frown looks less pronounced.

Thanks again for the help.

Larry

Oops... forgot to actually upload the photo.

If I was messing with that I would follow the procedure in the honing section of the barber manual I linked to in the previous post. Doesn't look too bad at all. If you're not an experienced honer you might be better off sending it out unless you want to play around with it yourself.

Thanks. Jimmy. I haven't honed a razor yet, so I don't think I'll use this one as my first! I'll have someone more experienced than me do it. The scales are okay but could be better, so I'm going to have it honed, polished and rescaled all in one shot.

Thanks again for your help!

Larry

Turn that frown upside down, my friend.
Nothing looks better than a smiley W&B IMHO.