Thread: Sanding the spine?

I'm in the process of sanding an F. Reynolds "The celebrated hollow ground" For Barbers use, but the spine has some rather deep pitting, is it safe to sand the spine or should this be left alone?

The razor will have some pitting left on the blade itself as I decided to keep the etching on the blade.

btw, I've tried to get some pics of the pitting, but it didn't work out

It's up to you whether you want to sand it or not. When doing a complete restoration we sand the spine, yes. It won't ruin your razor or anything. Just be careful of where the sandpaper is so you don't leave sanding scratches where you don't want them. Check out Bruno's handsanding how-to in the restoration FAQ at the top of the Workshop threads.

Thank's Alex,

I've managed to get this pic of the area I'm talking about, not sure if spines is the correct word for the area circeld.

It's hard to tell if that is the spine or some severe spine wear. Either way, it won't ruin the razor IMO to sand it. I'd do it. lol

Thanks again, and it's off to the workbench again

I could be wrong, but it kinda looks like the hone were on the spine has a little rust on the flat... try a few passes on the hone to see if some of the rust goes away... if some goes away then don't bother sanding too much in that area... it will go away after the restore and you start honing.

If you are going to sand some significant pits out of one end of a spine I think you have to be careful. After you're done you could have altered the spine's flatness throwing off the edge when you go to hone.

Chris L

Originally Posted by Chrisl

If you are going to sand some significant pits out of one end of a spine I think you have to be careful. After you're done you could have altered the spine's flatness throwing off the edge when you go to hone.

Chris L

+1 on that - I managed to do that on one of my first restorations.

Thanks guys,

I did a little sanding last night, and started thinking about throwing off the edge, so I just left it as is and hope most of it goes away when I hone it.

I am currently restoring a couple of really, really bad Joseph Rodgers wedges.
I removed the pitting from the blades, but I leave it on the spine.

The reason is that otherwise the spine would be a lot thinner, meaning that the honing angle would be upset.
I'd also have to remove the same amount of steel along the length of the spine, because honing with a bumpy spine would sure be interesting.
And finally, if the spine gets thinner on a wedge, you need to regrind the entire blade or you'll have some massive honewear.

I nly remove pitting from the spine if it does not itnerfere with the place where the spine touches the stone. For example, if the back of the spine is pitted, and there is room to correct it then I'll do it.