Thread: Need to grind down my razor's shoulder

I send my razor to be sharpened by a very kind, very skilled gentleman. This last time around he said that I'll need to have the shoulder ground down in order to properly sharpen it next time. I'm not exactly sure what he means or how to do it. Can you guys please help? Thanks!

I think he means that the edge is getting closer to the shoulder. The edge near the heel with start to push past the shoulder/stabilizers to where they will stick out farther than the edge. I hope that makes sense. You would have to take the shoulder/stabilizers to a coarse stone to try and push them farther up, but not grinding the edge away. I am not really sure as to how to explain how to do it so I hope someone else that knows will be able to explain it alot better.

you need to reprofile the heel/shoulder area so that when honing the razor the shoulder does not get in the way.

Well that didn't seem to hard to explain. lol I just couldn't put it into words.

I show how to do it in one of my vids but I can't remember which one

Gssixgun did it in his Restoration Breadknifing part1 video. It was about 4:58 and 5:17 into the video. Remember its just the heel and not the whole edge. Be careful no to hit the edge so you wont have to rehone the razor. Btw good video

How often do you pros see the need to do this? would asume any blades needing it are very well worn.

well i'm far from a pro, but I am going to say that it is rare and that only very well loved (honed) razors will need it.

Well worn and sometimes Damaged edges that required a ton of work and metal taken off as soon as the heel begins to get involved with the honing stroke take it back a bit... There is a certain geometery to the heel/edge relationship, I usually explain it as the edge is "presented" to the hone or beard, just look at a new razor and it makes sense...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Well worn and sometimes Damaged edges that required a ton of work and metal taken off as soon as the heel begins to get involved with the honing stroke take it back a bit... There is a certain geometery to the heel/edge relationship, I usually explain it as the edge is "presented" to the hone or beard, just look at a new razor and it makes sense...

That's an excellent distinction between "well-worn" and "damaged". Too often we're looking for that "next-to-new" look, and a lot of fine-shaving, well-worn blades sit in a box with nothing to do. Yeah, you'll have to grind away a bit of that stabilizer, but there's a reason we see so many razors honed till they look more like a awl .. they still worked, and their owners were loath to part with them.