Thread: Bread knifing

Thought I would try my hand at a slightly more involved restoration (slightly more involved for me that is). I have a Eye witness Taylor Sheffield which had a bunch of small chips in the blade. I recently bread-kniffed it my 220 and now the chips are gone. There is one thing I want to know before I start redressing the edge.

How flat should the blade be? Are we talking straight from heel to toe, or is there normally a little bit of a smile (more of a smirkr really) towards the ends. I don't know if it matters but the spine is not perfectly straight, it is more of a smile as well.

I realize there is no right answer as everything boils down to personal preferences. However, for someone who is newish to restoring razors (although somewhat experienced in working metal and wood), what should I aim for in terms of the profile of the cutting edge? do I mirror the spine, or do I give it a perfectly straight profile.

Thanks a bunch
CKN

Thanks

First question i would have is "what was the original blade profile like"????

I would have followed that unless there was bad hone wear on it then I would have corrected it to as close as original as possible....

As you can tell from my answers, yes there are personal preferences BUT I have always believed that as a restorer one should try and keep them as original as we possibly can.... Now if you want to start moving toward more customization that is a different aspect of the art....

If you go to this barber manual in the SRP Wiki help files here you will see their illustrations on what they consider an ideal blade profile. It happens that I like a slight smile best. Even more than slight is even better but like Glen said some blades are designed to be straight and the spine and the stabilizer bar or bars make it kind of hard to change them and it come out right. Here is Glen's excellent tutorial on honing a damaged blade. You might want to review that before you move on with it.

Yes, what Glen said is the best way to go.

However if you have forgotten what the profile was, then you may look at the “Hamburg Grind” (German style hollow grind), that is... the thicker “ridge” just behind the edge, you can see and feel it and how it reflects in the light, follow that profile and your bevel will hone evenly… the way the manufacturers intended.

BTW - the smirk is called an Elvis.



Yes I am forwarding my own agenda. I am trying to coin a term here.