Thread: My blade has lost it's smile

Hi. While polishing up this blade I had a momentary laps in concentration resulting in a large chip to the edge (still just visible between the words Gentleman's and Razor). I have ground it out but the result is I've lost the rather pronounsed smile.





I'm not too bothered as I still feel it has a pleasing shape except now I've started honing it, the edge is barely contacting the stone in the centre of the blade and there is widening of the bevel at the heel.

What I'm wondering is whether putting the smile back would help, and what is the best way to do it?

Thanks.

Here is the honing section of the 1961 barber manual excerpt in the SRP Wiki help files. It addresses this issue complete with illustrations and the text giving the method to restore the smile without resorting to the breadknife extreme.

I TOTALLY agree with Jimmy, work the smile back into it over time (hones) while you shave with it.

Thanks, I enjoyed reading that.