Thread: Grinding down a blade

Post a pic of the other side.

Judging by the excessive spine wear at the heel, it may be that the edge was straight at one time and excessive pressure or low git stone, may have caused the profile. A look at the other side may tell the story.

You could easily make the edge smile, matching the toe and heel width, if that was the case, There is not that much difference in width between the heel and toe, so very little steel would be removed.

Not seeing much for spine wear, Marty.
Take a look at the bevel a little closer, its even throughout the blade.

I believe I have a very similar razor if not the exact same model and close to the same year although mine has plastic scales. Very similar in the taper here are some photos of it. I believe this razor was not used that much or it was nicely restored. The blade is just about spotless but the photos were taken when it had ballistol on it so ignore the smudges.

(I recommend at least getting it shave ready and using it a bit before deciding whether or not you are going to straighten it out, I suggest keeping it the same as well)

https://imgur.com/TNEA7Bm
https://imgur.com/i8O44SX

Yes...very clean, Christian.

Many blade of that era / area have that profile. You will typically notice that the spine thickness and spine curvature are set in a way that allow such razors to be honed naturally without requiring a straight edge. If you make that edge straight, it will look wonky, and likely require you to fudge things on the spine as well because that razor was not made to be straight.

Many sheffield blades are not straight. The 'straight' edge only came to dominance with the advent of German double hollow grinding which makes it very efficient to mass produce razors, provided they are straight so that they can be shoved back and forth between the wheels.

Yeah, leave it as it is, shape-wise. Looks made that way. Anyway, you would be grinding off an awful lot of steel to make it straight and even. And it wouldn't make it shave any better. If you like straight and even blades, you could probably trade that razor for three or four nice mass produced early-mid 20th century hollowgrounds.

Looks like nearly a full wedge. Not a casual project to restore or even to hone. Spend some time examining the razor and thinking about how you intend to go about it.

Does the spine thickness taper, proportionally to the taper of the blade width? In other words, is the natural bevel angle the same all along the blade? That would make honing a lot simpler, if it is so.

You will almost certainly be using tape at some point, if not the whole process. And a rolling X stroke. Be careful to not exaggerate the roll. I see that a lot, and it does no favor to the razor.

You might want to farm this out to someone with a lot of experience with this sort of razor, just to get an appropriately set bevel on it, and only have to concern yourself with refreshing the edge as needed. Looks like a fun razor to shave with. I have always thought about making a razor with an exaggerated taper, but hollowground. It presents some problems that I am not in a hurry to fully resolve. But anyway I would think that the narrow heel end would be nice for under the nose, while the big toe would give it a satisfying heft and stability.