Warped edge remedy

What's the recommended remedy, if any? One of my first straight razors is a very old but pristine Joseph Rodgers & Sons slightly hollowed wedge. Over the years I've never been too happy with the way it shaves and I hardly ever use it because it disappoints no matter how carefully I try to hone it conventionally. Two or three years ago I was looking at it and noticed that the edge indicates a mild warp in the edge. The toe of the show side tends to want to go south, and the center/foot of the edge wants to go back north. This probably explains why such a nice old razor ended up in a flea market. It's not visible looking down the edge, but when it's laying flat the pattern that results from being sharpened shows a wide edge on the toe of the show side and thin running to the other end. Flip it over, and the visible edge is just the opposite, thin in front and wider going back.

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Originally Posted by brothers

What's the recommended remedy, if any? One of my first straight razors is a very old but pristine Joseph Rodgers & Sons slightly hollowed wedge. Over the years I've never been too happy with the way it shaves and I hardly ever use it because it disappoints no matter how carefully I try to hone it conventionally. Two or three years ago I was looking at it and noticed that the edge indicates a mild warp in the edge. The toe of the show side tends to want to go south, and the center/foot of the edge wants to go back north. This probably explains why such a nice old razor ended up in a flea market. It's not visible looking down the edge, but when it's laying flat the pattern that results from being sharpened shows a wide edge on the toe of the show side and thin running to the other end. Flip it over, and the visible edge is just the opposite, thin in front and wider going back.

What you have is not that the edge is warped. The entire razor is warped. More correctly, the edge and spine are not parallel. If you can achieve a bevel along the entire edge on both sides by normal honing, it is not a big deal at all. The width of the bevel surface at the edge does not have to be consistent for the razor to shave.

Just to be certain, take a sharpie and paint the bevel with it on both sides. Now give it 3 or 4 normal laps on your finisher. See if there is any part of the bevel where the ink remains. If there are such areas, you are not getting good contact at those places.

Often a honer's own particular "fist" is responsible for such imbalances. It is very easy to have a bias toward the spine at one end of the stroke and a bias toward the edge at the other end, and of course this is reversed on the return stroke. After many years of honing, especially excessive honing or honing with excessive pressure, this can result in visible effect. To rule out such bias, if you are fairly new to honing, and you are bench honing, start honing in hand. Your bias almost completely disappears when hone and blade are floating freely in front of you instead of resting on an immovable surface. Just throwing this in there even though most likely, the issue originates at the factory. This is VERY common with entry level razors.

Well, I read your post again and okay, it's not a Dovo LOL! So maybe the same owner honed the razor for 30 or 40 years and sort of left his mark on it. It COULD be the result of inexpert grinding. Or it could even actually be warped from the quench. It does happen.

Anyway if you are getting good contact, then there should be no reason why you can't hone it, inconsistent bevel width notwithstanding. Have you measured and calculated the bevel angle? Does the razor look like the bevel angle is too acute? IME Jos. Rodgers et all razors never suffer from bevel angles that are too obtuse. If it is very acute, like less than 14.5 degrees or so, that could be a problem, causing the edge to sort of topple. The cure for that is usually a compound bevel. Hone normally to the finish, then apply a layer of tape and go a half dozen laps on the finisher, no more, very light very very light pressure. Sometimes this trick will really bring out the best in a too thinly spined razor.

If that doesn't work for you, you might consider sending it out or maybe swapping with someone else for his problem razor. Sometimes a new hand and a new pair of eyes can work a miracle. That's where the science of honing and the art of honing diverge.

You will encounter many more razors like this, I am sure. This is quite common. And it should be no big deal, as long as there IS a bevel on both sides, end to end.

Honing a warped razor is not difficult, but as you say, cannot be honed conventionally with straight strokes.

First, lets look at the razor to see how bad, the warp is and if there are other issues.

Post some photos of the razor both sides and of the bevels, and the razor on a flat surface, to show the concave and convex side. Which stones do you have available?

The degree of warp determines how it will need to be honed. Before you go grinding more steel, and possibly making the condition worse, find out what the problem is, then come up with a solution that removes the least amount of steel.

More than likely it can be easily resolved, sometimes as simple as changing your stroke. Old Rodgers razors can take a fine edge.

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Please post some pics that clearly show the bevel on both sides.
Then we can help you better.