Thread: Odd Hone wear

Just picked up this Wade and Butcher locally. The blade shape is almost wedge shaped (not the grind but the profile). Should I take it back to a slight smile (or could this possibly have been original )? I'm a little nervous to take that much metal off...

Originally Posted by kennyloggins

The blade shape is almost wedge shaped (not the grind but the profile).

Hi Ken,
I'm not certain what you men by "the profile" being wedge shaped but I assume you are referring to the edge defect. Your razor has a really bad "frown" from improper honing by a previous owner. You really don't have much of a choice but to remove the frown first, before you even think of setting a bevel. YMMV, but I would not choose to "bread knife" that razor if it belonged to me. I would use circle strokes on a 220K stone until the frown was reduced to a perfectly straight edge. Then I would move to a 1000K stone to set a bevel. IMHO, bread knifing the razor first can result in excessive hone wear when removing the resulting thick metal at the heel and toe. But again, YMMV.

gssixgun posted an excellent thread a while back in the honing forum on how he works on ebay junk razors that need edge repair first (as yours does) before moving on to regular honing. It would be worth your time searching for it or perhaps someone else will remember when he posted it.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Kenny,
this razor has a frown from improper honing, it is fixable.

Thanks for confirming for me. By profile I meant it was narrow at the shoulder and considerably wider at the tip (if you were to look @ the blade from the perspective of pictures 3 and 4). The main reason I asked is because it looked like it was intentional... maybe to make it look like an early blade? Should any of that be maintained or should it be perfectly symmetrical?

Most users of SRP would call a blade wedge-shaped if the cross section of the blade resembles a wedge. The heel being lower than the toe is problably due to amateurish honing as well.

Originally Posted by kennyloggins

it looked like it was intentional...
<snip>
Should any of that be maintained or should it be perfectly symmetrical?

It's almost guaranteed that was not intentional. Working on a 220K stone, you will be removing more metal from the mid-to-toe end of the edge. Try to just remove the minimal amount of metal from the heel end of the blade, so that the stabilizer won't begin interfering with honing strokes. If that should happen, that's fixable too. For now, just focus on slowly removing the frown.

"Before 1800

Prior to 1800 blades and handles were wedge shaped. The Razor was wide at one end and tapered to a narrower point near the end where the pin was placed. The blade was wedge ground and its edge was straight."

(From Standard Guide to Razors)

Originally Posted by Kees

Most users of SRP would call a blade wedge-shaped if the cross section of the blade resembles a wedge. The heel being lower than the toe is problably due to amateurish honing as well.

Can you get a top down shot of the razors spine? Call me crazy but I think its been reground, the spine looks narrower than the tang/ makers mark area. Also there is an imperfection on one of the stabalizers. Also Imo honing such a frown would create more hone wear than that.

I'm going to clean it up and try to turn the frown upside down over the next couple of days. I'll post pics of it fixed when I get a chance. Thanks for all of the advice.

Originally Posted by Morty

It's almost guaranteed that was not intentional. Working on a 220K stone, you will be removing more metal from the mid-to-toe end of the edge. Try to just remove the minimal amount of metal from the heel end of the blade, so that the stabilizer won't begin interfering with honing strokes. If that should happen, that's fixable too. For now, just focus on slowly removing the frown.

Originally Posted by epd

Can you get a top down shot of the razors spine? Call me crazy but I think its been reground, the spine looks narrower than the tang/ makers mark area. Also there is an imperfection on one of the stabalizers. Also Imo honing such a frown would create more hone wear than that.