Thread: what to do with this spine.

Here´s a question for all the experts. Heard time and time again on here but unfortunately all the old advice doesn´t seem to be working.

I´m sharpening a razor for another user and the heel refuses to touch on the one side and continues to crumble when it seems to get close. I´ve tried the "rolling hone" method. I´ve tried with and without tape.

I´m leary of trying to take just the spine down, especially since it would have to be done on one side only. here´s a pic with it back on the tape. the tape does allow some vision of how it´s hitting on the problem side. I had to take with no flash as the flash made it way to bright to see anything.




Spots a and b are roughly equal in thickness. Spot c is the heel that refuses to touch on a good honing stroke, regular OR rolling. I´ve tried a smaller hone with no success. To make matters worse, This is happening only on one side. The other side sets evenly across and I am getting good results on that side. Additionally, every time I appear to get close to the entire blade hitting on this side, the problem area of the heel crumbles. I´ve resorted to the microscope and don´t see any obvious signs of oxidation so I´m stumped.

I don´t have diamond hones. I´ve tried going down to 400 grit wet paper on flat marble (I know it´s truly flat). Nothing I´ve done seems to be making headway. The only way I can get it to touch is by adding thumb pressure on the heel when that side is against the stone but that lifts the tip.

Should I try something new or should I just send it back with a recommendation of a regrind? My last thought is to tape the cutting edge and try a few passes on the 400 grit to see if I can get the spine to set evenly but I´m leary about this.

Glen F

Sounds like some wierd kind of warp to that blade. The one side problem makes no sense. If using a narrow hone doesn't allow you to equalize it I can't see anything else doing it. I would think if the blade had very uneven wear to the point that the grind became defective through that wear and then the heel on that side wouldn't support honing that's what you would be experiencing. Any way of taking a pair of really accurate calipers to the edge to see the thickness at different points along the blade edge? That might give you a clue.

I´ve already put it on the micrometer. That´s how I know That it´s equal on points A and B and thinner in between .

If it doesn´t shape up today I´ll just send it back with a note to look for regrinding.

Glen F

Well, I took it down to 220 grit and finally got the edge cleaned all the way across on both sides. This one has been a bugger, I´ve spent about 6 hours a day for over 5 days working on this bastage. It´s got a keen edge on it now though

Gentleman,
I have a confession.... this razor is mine, it was an ebay special and other than having surface rust and generally being filthy it looked fine.
I just got it back fron FUD today, rinsed and stropped it and took it for a shave. Other than too high of angle when i went for the chin leading to a few nicks, it did great! three passes on the cheeks and neck, 2 under the nose and on the chin.

Thanks it is a much nicer edge than what the local barber has done for me which is still better than what i can do myself. Ican shave but honing is tiresome... but i'm working on it...

jim

Kudos to Glen. Looks like a Masters Thesis in restoration