Thread: Unevenly honed edge

I picked up a str8 and the edge appears uneven on either side of the blade. Is this normal or should it be re-honed? By uneven, I mean it has a thicker bevel on one side and very small looking bevel on the other.

Is it possible to post a pic of both sides of the razor...

can you at least tell us about the stamps on the tang???

I hesitate to answer because you might have something totally different in hand...

But in general no uneven bevels will not hurt the shave they just mean the grind is slightly off...

That is enough to set me at ease. I believe it was well honed, it is an old razor that is to learn with until Christmas. I have already let the wife know what I expect. (Dovo tortise 6/8) It shaves as well as my technique allows.

There is often a tug of war aesthetically between looks and practicality. Do I hone away a lot of metal on one side so that the bevel is symmetrical with the other side? It will look a lot better, but much of the time does not improve the shave.

I usually decide to save metal and not worry too much on looks. But, there are times and with some razors that I vote for looks.

As Glen pointed out, it can really depend on the grind. The bevel is determined by the plane formed between the very apex of the edge and the outermost width of the spine. Everything outside of that plane has to be eliminated in order to form a sharp edge. The amount of steel that needs to be removed to form the bevel can vary on both sides, or along the same side, depending on just how thick the steel is near, but not at, the edge. That thickness determines the width of the bevel.
Geometry, not the honer, determines the width of the bevel.

The razor shaves well. I assumed it was due to hone wear or just simple facts of old razors. I think the guy I got it from provides an excellent service to newbies. Lol thanks Larry!