Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me? :P

Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

Here is the closeups of it.

Blade is not at all damaged other then very small chips on the blade, no crack as originally fault.

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im sure this blade could be easily maintained, I may buy a hone and strop myself and have a pop at it following guides as it doesnt look that damaged.
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

pedalpowersailing said:
join coticule.be - someone will do it for you
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Yeah, if the blade's in decent nick Bart over there will hone one blade for free on a coticule for new members. I think
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

It might be my monitor, but it looks like a fair amount of pitting/damage to the bevel just past the mid section going towards the tip.

I don't like the look of the thicker flat area on the spine which corresponds with a thickening of the bevel below it , either. It would be helpful to examine the other side of the razor: if the bevel gets smaller towards the mid section then enlarges again there is a fault with the grind or a slight warp. This will be echoed on the spine, which gets worn by the hone - if it is a warp then the flat will echo the bevel : large-small-large.

It is usually hard to get a decent edge in the mid section with such faults, as you generally end up over-honing on either side of it and under-honing in the middle. When people start concentrating on the middle, a frown develops. Multiple layers of tape and/or thin hones are usually employed as a workaround.

Having said that, you can't really tell until you begin to hone it - pictures can be quite misleading, so it may well be OK.

Regards,
Neil
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

Strange. The spine wear looks to me to be toe heavy, but the overall shape of the blade doesn't suggest that's the case. It's hard to tell by the edge-on photo, but a mild warp does seem likely. It doesn't look like an out and out nightmare at any rate, but it may well be less than straightforward.
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

It does look a bit strange, doesn't it Andy - that's why I would like to see the other side. The spine has little or no wear near the stabiliser end and gets wider towards the middle, goes in a bit then gets heavy again at the tip. The tip isn't a great indicator - a lot of people roll the razor there to follow the curve or - if it hasn't got a slight smile a lot of people induce one by concentrating on the tip, as it is said (and I agree - for me, anyway) that it gives a better shave.

The other side of the razor would be the clincher - if the hone wear along the spine gets narrower in the middle that would indicate a defect. One way around it is to raise the edges by inducing a smile, so the area that would otherwise be a frown is left a bit more prominent and gets a bit more contact with the stone. Doesn't always work though.

Talking of which, I have had ten new Dovos in for honing recently, most of which were Specials, two of which were Bismarcks. No problems with the Bismarcks, but all of the specials had this same defect. all but one took a decent edge in the end, but each one took about three times longer than usual to hone. One of those unforseeable things that knocks-on to all the other work waiting in line, unfortunately...

The four older Fritz Bracht dovos all sailed through, no problem.

I'm beginning to get a phobia about the shape of the flats on razor spines, along with my other phobias that include EJ open razors and Cyril Salters. The sight of all three brings on feelings of great trepidation followed by an immense headache - nurse, the screens!!!

Regards,
Neil
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

I'd hate to have to hone under time pressure. It amazes me just how much trouble an innocent looking razor can give ... and how easily some unpromising looking ones have come sharp. Would you care to spill the beans about the EJ blades Neil? You've already told me what I need to know about the Salters!
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

Andy - I'm pretty sure that the EJs are just rebranded cheaper Dovo razors, and lord knows the cheapest dovos have enough of a QC problem to stand out, so how much more of a problem if the qc is passed onto another company which doesn't even make straight razors? To sell a Dovo they must first buy it from Dovo - but then it would have the Dovo mark on it. How much more must it cost them to have their own logo - especially that easily rubbed-off emblem on the scales? Then to put a percentage mark up on top of it and resell it? How much do they pay for each unit - £10? £20? How much quality does that buy?

This isn't a put down, by the way - I'm only saying what I have first hand experience of and I may well have been unlucky and got a lot of bad EJs in for honing. Maybe that is only natural - if the razor didn't have a problem then the owner may well hone it himself, so perhaps I only get bad ones? Who knows? How long is a piece of string?

Regards,
Neil
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

used a small grit (less then 1000) stone my dad had around for knife sharpening.

So here are results following youtube guides

how did i do?
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Im guessing next move would be to buy a high grit stone and then strop after that.
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

cozzyb said:
used a small grit (less then 1000) stone my dad had around for knife sharpening.

So here are results following youtube guides

how did i do?
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://img857.imageshack.us/g/1000893.jpg/">http://img857.imageshack.us/g/1000893.jpg/</a><!-- m -->

Im guessing next move would be to buy a high grit stone and then strop after that.
Click to expand...

well If you have used a stone less then a 1000, it would proberly be at most a 600 so you are still going to need to go to about 1000 then 4 then 8, that will get a shaveready blade ( some people prefer a much higher finisher than 8 me included). If you try and take the stones in a bigger jump than this you will get sick and give up due to the amount of time you will have to spend on each stone. Also Hones can get really exspensize
 
Re: Just bought first Straight - anyone care to hone for me?

What pedro says. I suppose I might be prepared to try shaving with a 6k edge, if there was enough money on it, but 8k is a sensible minimum really.

You seem to have concentrated your attentions on the middle of the edge. Be careful because that's how frowns develop. (I'm still inclined to think that there's a warp there too). How wide is your stone? - I'm guessing 2" or less. You can reduce the tendency to work on the middle by angling the blade and honing with the heel leading. Don't overdo that, about 15 degrees at a guess should be fine, and it is good practice for other more abstruse reasons.

You can check your bevel setting by holding the edge under a bright light, and inspecting it critically. If you can see any light reflected from the edge at all, it needs more work. Ideally this is best done with a loupe or eyeglass. The other method is to shave arm hair, but that's a bit hit and miss in my opinion. Assuming that all is well, your next move is to find a stone in the 2-4k range, and do the same all over again. The ideal would be a 3" wide waterstone, lapped perfectly flat, but something like a soft Arkansas would be a move in the right direction.

Keep us posted! :D
 
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