blade symmetry, honing

[Matt]

Hello,

I honed one of my Wapis yesterday (less common hollow ground type). This time I failed with Dilucot so I taped it and ended with a nice edge, but what got me wondering was some strange asymmetry I observed.

The first picture actually misses what it should show: noticeably widening bevel at the heel. It's about o.5 mm on the rest of the blade, but at the heel it's gradually getting more than twice that wide (what got me wondering right now when I looked at the photos, is that maybe there's some strange double bevel and this is why it doesn't reflect light in the picture?). Incidentally, the reverse side displays an unusual spine wear in the same area - again, disproportionate to the rest of the blade.

There's not much warp looking at the bevel, but even if it was there - what's with this spine? I can't make it out. I forgot to measure it with a caliper, maybe that will give some clues.

Also - you can see that the spine is worn where the stabiliser is. This is a honing flaw of mine, I suppose?

Photos are intentionally underexposed to show the reflective areas clearly.

regards and best wishes,
Matt
[c]
___________

[/c]

 

[shaved]

You might consider an uneven grind. The picture (not from me) in [1] shows an uneven ground blade above an even one. There's also a chance for an uneven spine. Something is just not as exactly parallel as is could be. Nothing to worry as long as it shaves imho.

[1] http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/4aer-3f-jpg.html

 

[Bart]

Sound like the correct answer to me.

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[Matt]

Thank you, gentlemen.

What about this worn stabilizer? Does this happen to you, and do you bother about it at all?

Matt

 

[maro]

If what happens to me can be of any reference, then yes - it happens to me and no - I don't bother at all (only because it's a Wapi).
Below is the Wapi I started my honing journey with and it continues to be a sole razor I use for shaving.
Neither I count the Dovo kindly restored by Bart as a journey start (it was a threadbare incident rather than the honing exercise) nor feel I confident enough to try to hone it again.

Well, my Wapi doesn't have a stabilizer but, as you can see, it's worn out in the place where it would be.
I carried the spine wear to the extreme, I know : , but thanks to that you can observe what an uneven grind can be. On the upper picture there's the concavity in the spine and the wide bevel at the heel. None of them you can spot on the other side.

I made a frown on the edge (Bart already pointed it out to me in Ardennes) and I'm working to make it straight again. :-/

 

[urmas]

Hi Marek,

I see that your blade is frown in middle. I assume that you don't use a pressure shifting along the bevel while honing?
By myself, I like lightly smiling edges over straights. And besides, there was one old barber textbook what says that smiling edges are always smoother shavers than straight ones.

Regards,
Urmas

 

[maro]

Yeah, it is. That's what I wrote. It was even bigger before. I made it while honing on #26 from the vault (3,5 cm wide). Before the Unicot method was modified (half-strokes with preassure added) I used X-strokes only. This, obviously, led me to the frown becasue I didn't think what I was doing but just followed the description mindlessly. After method modification I didn't quite get the point with the exact position of the finger during half-strokes so only Bart's honing class was an eye-opener for me. I switched to my other coti (5 cm wide) to make my life easier and removed the excess from the heel. Now the time comes to take care of the point (but I will do that on #26 again).
I can't comment on smiling edges as I have shaved with none of them so far. Neither my less-than-mediocre experience in honing entitles me to any statement on that subject.

 

[urmas]

I can't comment on smiling edges as I have shaved with none of them so far. Neither my less-than-mediocre experience in honing entitles me to any statement on that subject.

Hi Marek,

Well, I'm considering myself also to less-than-mediocre razor honer.
I search for that textbook and I found it. I will send it to you by mail. Look at page 24, there is chapter "Honing Technique for the Advanced Student".

Regards,
Urmas

Edit: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/909637/1961%20Barbering%20Text%20-%20Honing.pdf