Thread: Suggestions for straightening a wavy blade.

Hi All,
I'm having a go at restoring a couple of razors and have run into a problem that someone here must have solved before.
The blade is wavy, and by that I mean that the width of the blade varies at different points along it's length.
I have tried to get good photos of it to show everyone what I mean, however, I don't seem to be able to. Suffice to say if the edge of the blade was placed on a straight line only two points along the blade would touch.
It is a distinct 'W' shape.
I have looked at gssixguns breadknifing video (thanks Glen) and I'm unsure if I need to go the this extent, although I may try starting the breadknifing at 30 degrees or less, as the waviness not extreme.
I just want to get the edge straight.
Does anyone have any other suggestions as I am not confident to go the breadknifing route at this stage?
All suggestions welcome TIA.
Cheers,
Geoff

Sometimes a 'smiling blade' is preferable to a straight profile. Is the spine worn unevenly in addition to the edge ? Without seeing a photo it is hard to advise you.

First, I'd like to clarify the orientation of what you consider "wavy." Are you talking about if the razor was in the breadknifing position, that is with the razor's spine directly above the razor's edge, which is touching a hone or other flat surface? If that is the wavy you are talking about, then you have combination of frowns and smiles along the edge. FYI, in general when we around here talk about an edge being wavy, it is in the plane 90 degrees perpendicular to this one, in which you would be laying the blade down on a hone with the edge and the spine touching the hone and the edge being varying distances from the hone. That is what is generally what a wavy blade would be considered to be.

I'm not trying to correct you. I'm just trying to make sure we are all understanding the condition of the blade you are describing.

Clearly you recognize that breadknifing is not a good thing if you are at least considering the variant of it that involves doing it at a much lower angle. As Jimmy pointed out, if you can provide a photo, we can be of much greater help.

No - the spine ios nice and straight with not a lot of hone wear, as far as I can tell.
Here are the photos I have of them.

Thanks for correcting me, I really appreciate it and yes I have a combination of smiles and frowns.

from the pic I would say you are talking about frowns?
To remove that do sets of 5 circles on each side with the spine off the stone say ~45* until the frown is gone, then proceed to set the bevel etc.

Here is a very old discussion about Breadknifing see things haven't changed much

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...popular-2.html

Just DON"T use it unless nothing else works, and there are Degrees involved from 90 down to the spine touching at 17 LOL you do not have to start at 90 most times ....


BTW I don't see any huge problems from those pics but they can be deceiving..

Thanks Glen,
I'll try and get some better photos to highlight what the problem is.
I'm leaning towards doing the 5 circles at around 30deg from the hone as they are not that bad (less than 1 mm) just to straighten it up and then set the bevel etc.
Would you suggest a 1k hone for this?
Do I need to go in opposite directions with the circles?
Do you think that, maybe, diagonal strokes (like sharpening a knife) might be more appropriate?
Cheers,
Geoff

I finally got a decent photo of the blade and it seems that it is not as bad as I thought.
Who said you can trust your eyes?

The slight, if any, frown is almost irrelevant considering the amount of corrosion on the front edge. You're going to have a do a decent amount of honing to get to good steel anyway and that should eliminate the frown at the same time.