Another crumbling edge thread

[Chaloney]

A few months ago I purchased a Wm Hargreaves near wedge off the bay as a restore project. Sanded and polished it. Replaced the broken bone scales with some functional but far from perfect wood scales then tried to hone it. I could never get a satisfactory shave from it. I thought some part of it was the weight and lack of feedback from the near 7/8 wedge but I was also very new at honing, so I put it away for a while and half forgot about it. Brooksies' recent crumbling edge thread reminded me of it. Mine has a nice smooth edge from the middle to the toe, but the heel half do the blade was rough feeling. Under my loop it looked like Brooksie described--crumbling/microchipped. Mine appeared to be completely unrestored when I got it and was not touched by a power tool or by vigorous sanding, so I don't know of any likely ruining of the temper. Here it is when I got it:



Since assembling my "cell phone microscope" I decided to take a close look at the edge. The blurred green lines behind the edge are 1mm markings on a ruler I slid behind it for scale.



my plan plan now is to follow brooksies lead and keep honing til I find good steel (although I've already done this in the past without finding it--hopefully today is the day)

 

[SliceOfLife]

That hole there is a spot of pitting, so you need to hone back a touch, but since it's a near-wedge, not too much. I expect once you put a couple layers of tape on it and hit a coarse stone it will take an edge just fine.

 

[Chaloney]

So the tape seems to have helped. The micro-chips are far fewer and smaller.



The toe end gives hht 3-4. The heel end only hht-1. The toe end cuts arm and leg hair 1/4 inch above the skin like crazy, the heel end only a few hairs. Both shave arm hair effortlessly. I'll try to shave with it in the am and hone some more if it's not so good

 

[Chaloney]

As expected, only half the blade shaves comfortably. Back to the stones. Also, measured the width. Near the toe it's just shy of 13/16th, about 1/4" from the heel a bit more than 11/16. The widest part was just 7/8ths when I first put it on a hone, so I've honed away over 1/16th" since getting the razor.

ian, the larger white spot was a piece of dust on the blade, I believe. I think I will be sticking with hollow ground razors for the foreseeable future, at least for restoration projects. This is just frustrating.

 

[pmaster]

Just keep at it and take your time (leave it aside for a few days and come back to it later if needed). Wedges can definitely be frustrating, but I just shaved with a Greaves this morning, which must have taken me at least 5-6h to hone (very very deep pitting on the edge), and the shave was really wonderful!

 

[Slash McCoy]

Wedges are a whole nother beast to hone. You can do a lot without tape, yes, and a well-worn wedge often is in need of a tapeless session to reduce the backbone created behind the edge from years of taped honing. But tape is pretty much required at some point in the process, certainly by the time you reach the finishing stage. Refreshing the edge should normally be done with tape. It is possible that your razor is thin enough to require tape just to set the bevel. Have you measured your bevel angle? You might want to see how many layers of tape it takes to bring it up to 17 degrees or so. That will give you a fairly robust edge that won't chip or crumble easily.

Sounds like you are making progress and taking the right approach. Another session or two should have your good edge extended nearly to the heel at the rate you are going.

I feel your pain. I don't like honing wedges, either. I love a nice simple straight edged hollowground razor, because it is so easy to hone. Given a choice, I want a shoulderless, too, same reason. But sometimes a honemeister's gotta do what a honemeister's gotta do. The experience is doing you a lot of good. Stick it out. Persevere. You will succeed, and the satisfaction will be satisfying.

 

[SliceOfLife]

The heel isn't contacting the stones as well as the toe. You need to focus it a little at all stages of honing and make sure it isn't lagging behind.

 

[Brooksie967]

Very similar looking issue for sure. Let us know how you make out!
I really did just have to keep honing until the problem stopped.

I stand by my claim that it wasn't 'micro' chipping in my case too as the problem kept recurring. I could see the chips getting smaller and then at a certain point they would grow again.

 

[chess1]

You will have hard time to fix this issue.
This blade does have temper problem.
I would suggest just try to tape it add more tapes and try see edge will keep after 12k.
if not then just sorry blade is not going to be good.
You can hone it until you find a good still but God knows that steal will come up or not.
hope this helps

 

[Chaloney]

You will have hard time to fix this issue.
This blade does have temper problem.
I would suggest just try to tape it add more tapes and try see edge will keep after 12k.
if not then just sorry blade is not going to be good.
You can hone it until you find a good still but God knows that steal will come up or not.
hope this helps

That's what I'm afraid of, especially as it gets narrower and narrower. I hope that Ian is right and I just need to do a better job keeping the heel on the hone. I'll keep trying for a bit longer...