Relieving Large Areas Of Spine Wear

[lightfoot]

So I have a few cheap vintage razors that are developing fairly wide areas of spine wear. Has anyone resorted to a bench/wheel grinder two get the contact area of the spine closer to the original dimensions? My concern is that these razors are developing a lot of stiction well before the edge is truly maxed out while honing.

 

[Herrenberg]

Very interested in this thread, having just finished using a Dremel on a razor for a very similar purpose. Any chance of a picture? I think it would be useful.

I am a bit confused about talk of stiction on a part of the razor that would not be touching your face.

 

[lightfoot]

Very interested in this thread, having just finished using a Dremel on a razor for a very similar purpose. Any chance of a picture? I think it would be useful.

I am a bit confused about talk of stiction on a part of the razor that would not be touching your face.

So what would cause the stiction in this case is the excessively wide area of the spine resulting from regular hone wear. The wider this area gets the more surface tension builds up between the stone and the razor. The idea would be to grind some of that flat area back towards the rear side of the spine.

 

[stone and strop]

You can blend the "shoulders" of the spine wear with w/d paper so it doesn't look like a large flat area and it will relieve some contact area as well.

 

[lightfoot]

I guess my question is as follows: Is this a valid concern or is this really a non-issue?
Is it possible that these wide areas of contact can actually undermine the Honing process?

 

[Herrenberg]

Until the wise old heads weigh in, you will have to make do with me. This is, at the moment, my favorite razor.

You can see very considerable hone wear, and correspondingly considerable bevel wear, as happens with a kamisori.

It glides over the stones, and does not stick.

 

[stone and strop]

I guess my question is as follows: Is this a valid concern or is this really a non-issue?
Is it possible that these wide areas of contact can actually undermine the Honing process?

I suppose since you asked - it is a concern...to you
Undermine the honing process?, no. If you are someone who likes to hone till the razor sticks - then yes. It will stick more and make the stroke jerky.
Adjusting the honing medium will reduce the sticking, dressing your stones differently will reduce sticking etc., etc.

 

[Gamma]

Spine wear does not impede honing. Same for giant bevels.

 

[lightfoot]

Maybe this is more of a personal preference thing then. So I’m personally not the biggest fan of that really heavy stiction sensation so it might be worth experimenting with a bit. The blades in question are good vintage blades but they don’t have any collectible value. I’ll probably find a less aggressive alternative to a grinder but I’ve always wanted to play around with the Tormek T8 or T10 wet sharpener.

 

[LJS]

Razors used to be refurbished by having a “re-grind” which re-hollows the blade and reduces the area of the blade contacting the stone. There are still folks who provide re-grind services.

While I agree with the others that it doesn’t prevent honing, I do think less surface area of the razor on the hone, the less steel to remove and less time it takes. Just logical……and if you’ve spent the time it takes to hone a proper wedge you may feel the same as I do

 

[lightfoot]

I’m in the middle of my own “poor man’s” regrind on one particular razor. I’ve messed around with this setup before with good results but I want to try a introducing more concavity to the razor than this will. I’ll post when I’m done.

 

[lightfoot]

So after a little work and some rehoning the razor in question my conclusion at the moment is that there was almost no difference in terms of honing speed or the amount of resistance from the stone after reducing the contact areas. Others have already suggested this on this thread and I have to agree. I’m not suggesting that this was a conclusive test. I think I would rather get my hands on a different razor (be it new or used) and simply tape from the beginning rather than try to modify a worn razor just because of hone wear alone.