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Setting the Bevel with the Burr Method

I've found these work for my slightly smiling edges.

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Link.

Happy shaves,

Jim
Your graphics are always outstanding, Jim . :a14:
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
Great advice.

I'd be happy to have a natural stone to finish, but I'm very far from knowing which direction to go with 'em + mortified at what they cost + worried about how much I've already spent on honing stuff.

What a rabbit hole!

Happy shaves,

Jim


Egads,

You guys are killing me. I just wanted to see if I could shave with my Grandpa's Real Old English Razor and started honing away on a cheap combo stone I got at the local asian market for $6 about a year ago. Just every now and then. Then I used another cheap Sharp Pebble 400/1000 combo stone that I got for my wood-shop planes. Of course I also used green polishing compound and got it to cut forearm hair.

Of course, all this was before I decided to fall down the DE rabbit hole January of this year. I didn't realize that until I joined B&B in February and started buying vintage Gillette DE razors.

Some 18 DE razors later, I thought to myself, "Hey, why not get a few vintage straight razors and a Norton 4000/8000 combo stone?"..............
20190705_181931.jpg 20190811_075944.jpg
to be continued...........

prof

P.S. any idea's on a 12k-16k finishing stone?
 
Egads,

You guys are killing me. I just wanted to see if I could shave with my Grandpa's Real Old English Razor and started honing away on a cheap combo stone I got at the local asian market for $6 about a year ago. Just every now and then. Then I used another cheap Sharp Pebble 400/1000 combo stone that I got for my wood-shop planes. Of course I also used green polishing compound and got it to cut forearm hair.

Of course, all this was before I decided to fall down the DE rabbit hole January of this year. I didn't realize that until I joined B&B in February and started buying vintage Gillette DE razors.

Some 18 DE razors later, I thought to myself, "Hey, why not get a few vintage straight razors and a Norton 4000/8000 combo stone?"..............
View attachment 1007061 View attachment 1007062
to be continued...........

prof

P.S. any idea's on a 12k-16k finishing stone?
I would recommend a natural finisher. They are for the most time cheaper than synthetic finishers and leave a better edge imo.
A black ark is a really nice and consistent finisher, and cheap compared to the finish it gives, outperforms any synthetic imo(just make sure you have the surface smooth and burnished)
Then there are coticules(can be very nice but they vary ALOT in their capability to finish the edge)
Thuringians, German water hone, haven't tried one but these stones are expensive since they are not being mined anymore.
Then we have the jnat hole, all sort of Japanese natural stones. I repaired a kitchen knife today with a "medium jnat" it's called a medium stone but it raises a burr faster than my shapton glass 500. Then I went to a softer jnat finishing pocket stone to refine it, then moved on to a very hard bench sized jnat to give it a hazed mirror polish.
Cutting speed is based on the type of slurry you use and what stone you pair it with, or if you work up a slurry from the base stone.
Jnats are a very fun part of honing and can be very rewarding but also frustrating sometimes.
 
Oh yes I see. You are quite correct. 100 strokes should raise a burr if it is nearly there, yes. Try increasing pressure. Use approximately the full weight of your arm, maybe a tiny bit more. Pressure forms burrs, whether you want them, or not. Light pressure removes/prevents them, as a general characteristic.

Possibly the problem is you simply don't detect the burr. Feel both sides. It is the difference between them that you will notice, not the actual burr itself, unless the burr is extremely pronounced, which equates to wasted steel. So for practice, I suggest you go at it with a razor you really don't care much about. Go until you DO feel the burr, staying on one side up to say 500 strokes before flipping. Then go 1000 strokes on the other side. Then 2000 on the first side again. You GOT to get a very obvious burr sooner or later. Now of course this is leading that particular razor down the path to the scrap bin. Maybe. But sooner or later you will have a burr and then you will go, "Ah HAH!!! Eureka!!!"

The reason I think maybe you just don't recognize the burr is because by all other tests, you seem to have a bevel. As soon as your bevel is in, continued honing, especially on one side only, will immediately start deflecting the edge upward, particularly with heavy pressure. Now you don't NEED to raise a burr if the bevel is truly set. I would like you to go to the extreme though, just so you learn to recognize it. So grab a junkbox razor and wail away on it. You will get this. And maybe once you got it, you will feel that you don't really need to do it this way, but at least you will be able to, and will understand it.
"Aha! Eureka!" After trying the Burr method for a few days, I finally got the bevel set on 600g lapping film and shaved arm hair (at a slight downward angle). I think the key was my pressure wasn't heavy enough initially. Shave test tomorrow!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Because a bevel only needs to be set once, it doesn't hurt anything to use heavy pressure to get the heavy lifting done. The amount of steel "wasted" is very small, in the grand scheme of things. A burr of course needs to be removed, the edge fixed so you have a bevel but only a bevel, no artifacts hanging off the edge. This is where gradually diminishing pressure is needed, and from that point, the pressure should become lighter and lighter as the progression progresses, until at the finish, it is dead light.

Not sure what 600g lapping film is, though. Due to lack of the "mu" character on most keyboards, we usually use the lower case letter "u" to indicate microns. Typically a bevel would be set with 15u, 12u, or 9u film. I usually use sandpaper, anywhere from 200 or even coarser, to 2000 grit, whatever seems needed, with intermediate stops when I have to begin very coarse.

So, now that you have a bevel, what sort of progression and finish will you use? You don't want to shave off a raw bevel. It will need to be refined and polished to at least 1u or 12k for a satisfying shave.
 
Because a bevel only needs to be set once, it doesn't hurt anything to use heavy pressure to get the heavy lifting done. The amount of steel "wasted" is very small, in the grand scheme of things. A burr of course needs to be removed, the edge fixed so you have a bevel but only a bevel, no artifacts hanging off the edge. This is where gradually diminishing pressure is needed, and from that point, the pressure should become lighter and lighter as the progression progresses, until at the finish, it is dead light.

Not sure what 600g lapping film is, though. Due to lack of the "mu" character on most keyboards, we usually use the lower case letter "u" to indicate microns. Typically a bevel would be set with 15u, 12u, or 9u film. I usually use sandpaper, anywhere from 200 or even coarser, to 2000 grit, whatever seems needed, with intermediate stops when I have to begin very coarse.

So, now that you have a bevel, what sort of progression and finish will you use? You don't want to shave off a raw bevel. It will need to be refined and polished to at least 1u or 12k for a satisfying shave.
600g is lazy for 600 grit or 30 micron lapping film. I had a couple of chips so I started on 60 micron, got a partial Burr, moved up to 30 micron and got the full Burr. I went coarser because I think the geometry on this is weird because I was having a hard time getting the faintest of burrs in the middle. 10x loupe shows a faint white line and I feel "something" different.

I then moved to 12 micron, for 20 or 30 laps, 5 micron, 3 micron and 1 micron with paper under the film. I'm having a hard time identifying the difference in striations to know when I've fully polished the bevel.

I could go further into a .3 micron film but I'm not convinced I've really nailed this yet so I want to do some trial and error.

Could my slight lack of sharpness be coming from the fact that I didn't set the bevel at 12u? Do I go back to 12u and create the burrs again to improve this?
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
600g is lazy for 600 grit or 30 micron lapping film. I had a couple of chips so I started on 60 micron, got a partial Burr, moved up to 30 micron and got the full Burr. I went coarser because I think the geometry on this is weird because I was having a hard time getting the faintest of burrs in the middle. 10x loupe shows a faint white line and I feel "something" different.

I then moved to 12 micron, for 20 or 30 laps, 5 micron, 3 micron and 1 micron with paper under the film. I'm having a hard time identifying the difference in striations to know when I've fully polished the bevel.

I could go further into a .3 micron film but I'm not convinced I've really nailed this yet so I want to do some trial and error.

Could my slight lack of sharpness be coming from the fact that I didn't set the bevel at 12u? Do I go back to 12u and create the burrs again to improve this?
No, no need to raise a burr again. You could, if you are really concerned, or if nothing seems to be working, but I believe there is no need, and it would remove an additional small amount of steel that does not need to be removed. From 30u, you should spend a little time on 12u, yeah. Or 9u. Try to not take jumps in grit higher than 3x if possible and practical.

If you are judging completion of a stage by the obliteration of the previous stage scratches, the easy way is to change the heel leading angle enough that you can tell one set of scratches from the next, by the difference in direction. But when a stage is nearly finished, you will also note an increase in sharpness. When the sharpness increases noticeably, just go a few more laps and you are done. If you think you may have a bit of burr or fin edge, you can do a half dozen pull strokes on each side, alternating one side and the other, and then peak the apex back up with a half dozen or a few more of ordinary edge leading laps with very light pressure. This has always worked well for me.

Once you had raised a burr on one side and then the other, what was your method of removing the burr? The burr must be completely removed, and the earlier, the better. Preferably with the same grit that you used to raise it in the first place.

I think what I would do, is give it a couple dozen light laps on the 30u and start the progression again. And give it the pull strokes before moving up to the 12u. Do your sharpness tests before and after the 30u and the 12u. You should get very good forearm shaving after the 12u, and nice results from TNT, TPT, cherry tomato, all of the standard bevel tests. If not, work on the 12u until you see cutting power improved.

Some honers do not like the 5u film. Seraphim I believe is one such person, and he was basically my film mentor. Many honers go 15u or 12u, then 9u, then 3u and 1u. At 3u, you should get very noticeable stiction when that stage is nearly done. At 1u, very strong stiction. 9u will give you very strong undercutting of the honing water. All stages will give you increased sharpness just before time to move on. By the 3u stage, the treetopping and hht become very useful tests. Even though the precise qualative results are subjective, you are not looking for particular levels as much as a noticeable increase from the previous level.

Be of good cheer. Knowing that you have a fully set bevel is half the fight. You are almost there. When you have successfully finished at 1u, you should have an edge that in anybody's book is shave ready.
 
I removed the Burr using your description of
No, no need to raise a burr again. You could, if you are really concerned, or if nothing seems to be working, but I believe there is no need, and it would remove an additional small amount of steel that does not need to be removed. From 30u, you should spend a little time on 12u, yeah. Or 9u. Try to not take jumps in grit higher than 3x if possible and practical.

If you are judging completion of a stage by the obliteration of the previous stage scratches, the easy way is to change the heel leading angle enough that you can tell one set of scratches from the next, by the difference in direction. But when a stage is nearly finished, you will also note an increase in sharpness. When the sharpness increases noticeably, just go a few more laps and you are done. If you think you may have a bit of burr or fin edge, you can do a half dozen pull strokes on each side, alternating one side and the other, and then peak the apex back up with a half dozen or a few more of ordinary edge leading laps with very light pressure. This has always worked well for me.

Once you had raised a burr on one side and then the other, what was your method of removing the burr? The burr must be completely removed, and the earlier, the better. Preferably with the same grit that you used to raise it in the first place.

I think what I would do, is give it a couple dozen light laps on the 30u and start the progression again. And give it the pull strokes before moving up to the 12u. Do your sharpness tests before and after the 30u and the 12u. You should get very good forearm shaving after the 12u, and nice results from TNT, TPT, cherry tomato, all of the standard bevel tests. If not, work on the 12u until you see cutting power improved.

Some honers do not like the 5u film. Seraphim I believe is one such person, and he was basically my film mentor. Many honers go 15u or 12u, then 9u, then 3u and 1u. At 3u, you should get very noticeable stiction when that stage is nearly done. At 1u, very strong stiction. 9u will give you very strong undercutting of the honing water. All stages will give you increased sharpness just before time to move on. By the 3u stage, the treetopping and hht become very useful tests. Even though the precise qualative results are subjective, you are not looking for particular levels as much as a noticeable increase from the previous level.

Be of good cheer. Knowing that you have a fully set bevel is half the fight. You are almost there. When you have successfully finished at 1u, you should have an edge that in anybody's book is shave ready.
I removed the Burr using the diminishing Lapp method with lighter and lighter weight earlier in this thread.

I restarted at 30u and moved down to 12u using a heel leading stroke and I've been at it for a couple hours. I definity see the change in striations but only faintly at the middle.

I'm able to catch leg hairs with no skin contact and shave arm/ leg hairs if the blade contacts the skin. However, it seems to be pretty consistent to what I felt at 30u with no improvement. Is this the indicator I'm looking for to move up?
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Are you honing in hand, or on a bench? If you are bench honing, possibly reducing pressure has you using a different balance of pressure. Or perhaps you were laying a finger along the blade on the 30u film, and disproportionately wearing the middle part of the edge. Keep in mind that on a microscopic level, the edge of a razor is very flexible and can flex wildly without being obvious to the honer. Honing in hand automatically corrects many issues of that nature.

Two hours should have been enough to max out a dozen times. Your lapping plate is verified flat?

When you raised a burr, did you check all along the length of the blade? The burr must be evident along the entire edge, on both sides in turn.

Do you mean that you still see the previous stage scratches in the middle, and only faintly see the new ones?

How about the ends? Do you see increased sharpness there?

You are there, the razor in your hands and under your eye. You can post pictures but we cannot actually hold the razor in the light, and feel the edge. Sometimes it is difficult to accurately assess what is going on, long distance. Maybe you should stop and think things out for a while before proceeding further. Otherwise you might just wear out steel and film and your patience to no advantage. The answer is right in front of you. You may have to be the one to find it. I myself am starting to run out of ideas.
 
Are you honing in hand, or on a bench? If you are bench honing, possibly reducing pressure has you using a different balance of pressure. Or perhaps you were laying a finger along the blade on the 30u film, and disproportionately wearing the middle part of the edge. Keep in mind that on a microscopic level, the edge of a razor is very flexible and can flex wildly without being obvious to the honer. Honing in hand automatically corrects many issues of that nature.

Two hours should have been enough to max out a dozen times. Your lapping plate is verified flat?

When you raised a burr, did you check all along the length of the blade? The burr must be evident along the entire edge, on both sides in turn.

Do you mean that you still see the previous stage scratches in the middle, and only faintly see the new ones?

How about the ends? Do you see increased sharpness there?

You are there, the razor in your hands and under your eye. You can post pictures but we cannot actually hold the razor in the light, and feel the edge. Sometimes it is difficult to accurately assess what is going on, long distance. Maybe you should stop and think things out for a while before proceeding further. Otherwise you might just wear out steel and film and your patience to no advantage. The answer is right in front of you. You may have to be the one to find it. I myself am starting to run out of ideas.
I think i'm starting to see the pieces come together. I saw your sharpness test post on another thread of mine and i think i may have been confusing "shaving" with "tree topping." The razor I'm working on can shave arm hair. it takes a few soft passes back and forth but the hair does come away. When i try and do the tree topping test sometimes i hear the hair ping and catch and maybe cut a few... and sometimes it doesn't. I have to get pretty close to the skin (1/8th inch?) to get it to catch. So if my bevel is set (because it shaves arm hair), but doesn't tree top, do i get the edge sharper by working through the progression of films I have? I understand I work on one film until I see the striation pattern change and feel a sharpness difference. A follow up question: I shouldn't expect to treetop off polishing on the 4k so what sort of variance of sharpness should I expect to see as I go up?

I really appreciate the help... this is challenging when I don't have someone I can watch!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
First, let's get the bevel out of the way by reviewing what has to be done to set and verify the bevel. Since you are in this thread I will assume that you honed one side of the razor until a burr was detected not just at one spot or one area, but along the entire edge, end to end, with the possible exception of a small fraction of an inch at either end. You can lift the toe to get a curvy heel, or lift the heel to get a curvy toe, but most guys overdo it and simply make the problem worse in the long run. Better to not worry if the last 3/16" or so of that toe isn't getting any love. Eventually, if you hone properly, the rest of the edge will catch up with the worn toe or heel and you will get all or very nearly all of the edge sporting a good bevel. But back to the bevel setting. So you detected a burr along the entire edge or at least all but the last tiny bit. You flipped the razor and honed an equal number of laps, however many it took, on the second side, and then found you had a full length burr on the other side. Now you have raised a burr on each side in turn. You then used diminishing sets of half laps and then very light alternating laps to remove the bevel. You tested the razor for sharpness and it shaves arm hair quite easily but doesn't treetop or barely treetops or maybe just catches and pings at 1/8" above the skin. Now you want to start your progression.

Okay, so now you hit the 4k stone or 9u or 5u lapping film. First of all, observe the honing water. You should see the razor cutting cleanly under the honing water and leaving dry hone behind it, when this stage is finished. Further, if you changed the heel leading angle a bit, you will see at first only the bevel setter scratches, and then the 4k scratches running at a different direction that allows you to easily tell the two stages of scratches apart. When you have finished, the old scratches should be gone and only the new scratches are apparent under magnification. You may feel that the edge is sticking to the home. The sharpness test results will improve, then they will cease to improve further. You are done. Move up to the next stage, the prefinish stage, typically 8k synthetic stone or 3u lapping film. Now you switch directions a few degrees again, so you can separate the previous scratches from the new ones like you did before. By the time you are done, you should see the old scratches completely gone. You will probably feel some "stiction". The sharpness tests will show still more improvement. The 8k edge, when maxed out, will shave your face, but maybe not with great comfort or closeness.

Now, the money shot. The finish stage. 12k stone or 1u film. Same thing again with a new honing direction. The stiction will be very pronounced. All through the progression your pressure should have become lighter and lighter. By the finish stage, pressure should be less than the weight of your hand. By the end of this stage, the weight of the razor only. This can get a little dicey due to the stiction. If you are honing in hand, it is much easier. At the end, do a few pull strokes and a final half dozen of the lightest laps. Now it should treetop at 1/4" and it is okay if it makes an audible ping and doesn't mow down every single hair. That is shave ready sharpness. You can up your game by applying lather to your finisher and gradually reducing pressure to practically zero so that it feels like you are making less and less and finally zero contact with the hone. Now you can shave like a boss. And optionally, hit the pasted balsa for a real treat.

Yes, sharpness increases as you go through the progression. Shaving ability increases.

Just to be sure you have all the bases covered, I suggest that you read the threads related to these steps one more time, start to finish. No need to be in a hurry for first shave with the new edge. Take your time, and work on your prep as you shave with your old gear.
 
@Slash McCoy If I were to Dremel the heel of a Gold Dollar 66, would I be able to use the burr method on 30 micron lapping film to set the bevel?

I know that people go to much greater lengths when modifying these razors, but I'm just looking to keep it simple!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Yeah, sure
@Slash McCoy If I were to Dremel the heel of a Gold Dollar 66, would I be able to use the burr method on 30 micron lapping film to set the bevel?

I know that people go to much greater lengths when modifying these razors, but I'm just looking to keep it simple!

Sure, but for a GD66 you might want to start the bevel on say 220 grit sandpaper glued to your acrylic plate. When you have raised a burr along about 3/4 the length of the blade, on both sides, bump it up to 400 grit and bring it home, or almost so. Then move up to the film, and proceed normally. Acetone works nicely to remove the glue residue. I use 3M or Loctite spray adhesive for that. Some brands of nail polish remover have enough acetone in them to remove the glue. Don't let it stand long on the acrylic. Just wet a rag with it and rub off the glue.

Two ways of dealing with the heel. The thumbnotch method is the easiest, and gives you a very comfortable razor to hold in the hand, that also looks kinda cool. You simply take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and hold it perpendicular to the blade, and grind right in there from the shank, until you have a thumb notch and no stabilizer. Be careful cause the thin steel at the edge can overheat in just a couple of seconds. The other way is to thin down the stabilizer until it is gone, and thin especially at the heel where the unskilled grinders leave a large area of blade too thick. This is trickier and demands a little more patience, care, and general craftsmanship. Here is a fast and dirty example of the thumbnotch style heel reduction. I actually grond way more than I needed to. I could have saved about 1/4" of edge length, maybe. Sorry the pic is crap, Just took it with the built-in cam in my laptop lid.
thumbnotched66.jpg

You can also round off the heel so that the edge ends well before the stabilizer.
 
Yeah, sure


Sure, but for a GD66 you might want to start the bevel on say 220 grit sandpaper glued to your acrylic plate. When you have raised a burr along about 3/4 the length of the blade, on both sides, bump it up to 400 grit and bring it home, or almost so. Then move up to the film, and proceed normally. Acetone works nicely to remove the glue residue. I use 3M or Loctite spray adhesive for that. Some brands of nail polish remover have enough acetone in them to remove the glue. Don't let it stand long on the acrylic. Just wet a rag with it and rub off the glue.

Two ways of dealing with the heel. The thumbnotch method is the easiest, and gives you a very comfortable razor to hold in the hand, that also looks kinda cool. You simply take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and hold it perpendicular to the blade, and grind right in there from the shank, until you have a thumb notch and no stabilizer. Be careful cause the thin steel at the edge can overheat in just a couple of seconds. The other way is to thin down the stabilizer until it is gone, and thin especially at the heel where the unskilled grinders leave a large area of blade too thick. This is trickier and demands a little more patience, care, and general craftsmanship. Here is a fast and dirty example of the thumbnotch style heel reduction. I actually grond way more than I needed to. I could have saved about 1/4" of edge length, maybe. Sorry the pic is crap, Just took it with the built-in cam in my laptop lid.
View attachment 1093615
You can also round off the heel so that the edge ends well before the stabilizer.
That's brilliant! Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed response! I'll get me a couple ordered!

My 30u, 9u, 3u and 1u film arrived today. Just waiting on my 20mm 3" x 12" acrylic block to arrive!

I've devoured every thread and am excited to start honing my own straights!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
That's brilliant! Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed response! I'll get me a couple ordered!

My 30u, 9u, 3u and 1u film arrived today. Just waiting on my 20mm 3" x 12" acrylic block to arrive!

I've devoured every thread and am excited to start honing my own straights!

You are already shaving with a straight razor, right? It is REALLY hard to try to learn to shave with a straight razor and also learn to hone the same razor, at the same time. You need to learn to shave, first. Otherwise you probably won't know if you have or have not created a shave ready edge. For your first honing adventure, you are better off with a better razor than a GD, anyway. I strongly urge you to not do things the hard way.
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
Yeah, sure


Sure, but for a GD66 you might want to start the bevel on say 220 grit sandpaper glued to your acrylic plate. When you have raised a burr along about 3/4 the length of the blade, on both sides, bump it up to 400 grit and bring it home, or almost so. Then move up to the film, and proceed normally. Acetone works nicely to remove the glue residue. I use 3M or Loctite spray adhesive for that. Some brands of nail polish remover have enough acetone in them to remove the glue. Don't let it stand long on the acrylic. Just wet a rag with it and rub off the glue.

Two ways of dealing with the heel. The thumbnotch method is the easiest, and gives you a very comfortable razor to hold in the hand, that also looks kinda cool. You simply take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and hold it perpendicular to the blade, and grind right in there from the shank, until you have a thumb notch and no stabilizer. Be careful cause the thin steel at the edge can overheat in just a couple of seconds. The other way is to thin down the stabilizer until it is gone, and thin especially at the heel where the unskilled grinders leave a large area of blade too thick. This is trickier and demands a little more patience, care, and general craftsmanship. Here is a fast and dirty example of the thumbnotch style heel reduction. I actually grond way more than I needed to. I could have saved about 1/4" of edge length, maybe. Sorry the pic is crap, Just took it with the built-in cam in my laptop lid.
View attachment 1093615
You can also round off the heel so that the edge ends well before the stabilizer.
20200429_134704[1].jpg

So I went to all this trouble when I could have just ground the whole thing off!!!
I seriously need to peruse these threads more.....
 
Yeah, sure


Sure, but for a GD66 you might want to start the bevel on say 220 grit sandpaper glued to your acrylic plate. When you have raised a burr along about 3/4 the length of the blade, on both sides, bump it up to 400 grit and bring it home, or almost so. Then move up to the film, and proceed normally. Acetone works nicely to remove the glue residue. I use 3M or Loctite spray adhesive for that. Some brands of nail polish remover have enough acetone in them to remove the glue. Don't let it stand long on the acrylic. Just wet a rag with it and rub off the glue.

Two ways of dealing with the heel. The thumbnotch method is the easiest, and gives you a very comfortable razor to hold in the hand, that also looks kinda cool. You simply take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and hold it perpendicular to the blade, and grind right in there from the shank, until you have a thumb notch and no stabilizer. Be careful cause the thin steel at the edge can overheat in just a couple of seconds. The other way is to thin down the stabilizer until it is gone, and thin especially at the heel where the unskilled grinders leave a large area of blade too thick. This is trickier and demands a little more patience, care, and general craftsmanship. Here is a fast and dirty example of the thumbnotch style heel reduction. I actually grond way more than I needed to. I could have saved about 1/4" of edge length, maybe. Sorry the pic is crap, Just took it with the built-in cam in my laptop lid.
View attachment 1093615
You can also round off the heel so that the edge ends well before the stabilizer.

Thanks @Slash McCoy for all this info on the burr method. I am fairly new to wet shaving. Meaning, I can do it without cutting myself, but I am not a blade ninja yet. Anyway, I decide to try my hand at honing and bought a 6/8" Gold Dollar 208 for the purpose of having a razor to hone that I wouldn't cry about if I messed it up due to the price or vintage quality of said practice honing razor. Boy was I shocked to find that the shoulder on either side of the blade were really messing me up when I tried to hone it the first time around. All of the posts throughout this thread have made it pretty easy for me to both detect why my initial attempts were unsuccessful, and correct my honing skills enough to get a fairly shave ready blade out of the cheap razor I bought. I imagine a blade with good geometry is no where near as hard to hone up to SR. In addition, The thumb notch seems like a great way to go to avoid having to compensate for the uneven thickness of the shoulder on either side altogether. Anyhow, Thanks again.
 
I have never tried a full face shave with a straight razor, only one pass WTG. I don't have a razor that has been honed by a professional but I have one or two that I may send out to be done. Having a properly honed razor for comparison is a must. Some of my razors are "good for learning" and some are "Don't touch that until you know what you're doing". This is something I'm taking my time learning. It's more about restoring than shaving, for me right now, but if I'm going to restore a razor I want to do all of it right.
Good afternoon Slash,
Would a Dovo razor, 5/8, half-hollow ground and not sold as shave-ready be a good razor to work with? I saw a new one for sale from an online knife vendor discounted to about $75.00, but hopefully would still have decent quality to be able to take a good edge if I work on it and not too much to lose if I mess it up. I do not want to mess up my Ralf Aust razor, and will likely send it to one of the professional sharpeners recommended on this forum.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Good afternoon Slash,
Would a Dovo razor, 5/8, half-hollow ground and not sold as shave-ready be a good razor to work with? I saw a new one for sale from an online knife vendor discounted to about $75.00, but hopefully would still have decent quality to be able to take a good edge if I work on it and not too much to lose if I mess it up. I do not want to mess up my Ralf Aust razor, and will likely send it to one of the professional sharpeners recommended on this forum.
Not an entry level Dovo. Some of them are pretty wonky. At $75, it is probably not so great. Maybe a "Best Quality" which is actually their worst quality, or a"Special", which is almost as bad IMHO. Once the bevel is set by someone who knows what he is doing, then they will not be difficult to hone, but getting the bevel set in the first place is the catch.

I would wait until you are at least a month of successful shaves in, before you start trying to hone your own razor. You should be able to start with one or two good shave ready razors and keep them shaving for that long. THEN try to hone one yourself. Since you will be starting with a sharp razor and just refreshing an edge that is normally dulled, all you will need is a finisher such as 1u lapping film, or a 12k Naniwa Superstone that is freshly lapped.

If you intend to send that Dovo out to an experienced honemeister, yeah okay, it will do. You probably won't be able to hone it yourself even faithfully following The Method.Start with a good vintage razor, if you want to hone it against my advice and against all rhyme and reason. Or a Gold Dollar P81, You can fix the heel like this:
, Once you get that done, it will hone up fairly well. Or would, if you were ready to begin honing. See Newbie Honing Compendium - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/newbie-honing-compendium.545370/ and read ALL, and all the linked threads, and follow along exactly, and you will enjoy your greatest possible chance of getting a great edge early on with minimal expense.
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
I should point out that feel is not the only way to detect a burr. If you have a good loupe, you can easily spot the burr and also you can easily spot places on the edge where the bevel is not set. You need some magnification and also a VERY BRIGHT CONCENTRATED LIGHT SOURCE. You are not really looking at the steel, but at the reflections.

A poorly set or incomplete bevel will reflect light from the upturned edge. A burr will reflect light when the edge is turned to the side, and also the flat face of the bevel will give you a wide reflection that does not shift when you roll the razor, but instead will appear or disappear.

The below material is from the web, used with the owner's permission. I can't post the link here, so I will post the content.

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I will assume first of all that you have read the chapter on setting the bevel with the Burr Method. You may have used the Burr Method to set a bevel, and found one small section of the edge is slow to raise a burr. You have to keep going and keep going to get down to the bottom of the edge irregularity before a burr can be raised. At the same time you might be nervous about "wasting" steel. The Howlers of Outrage might be getting to you. Okay, then here is a modified Burr Method that certainly does not "waste" steel.

To get a bevel set, the deepest dip in the edge has to come into contact with the honing media. The only way for this to happen if you are only willing to accept a nice flat bevel is to remove steel from the blade until the bevel surface is ground down to the level of the bottom of any irregularities. Can I get an amen here? You can't set a bevel without removing steel. You are not done removing steel until the bevel is fully set.

So if the burr method is scary to you or seems morally wrong or is against the teachings of the mighty internet egos, then raise a burr on both sides but stop just short of a complete burr, along the entire edge. Equalize your laps on both sides. Hone the burr off with diminishing sets, diminishing pressure, and alternating laps, just as if you had done a full on bevel set using the Burr Method all the way to complete success. Look at your razor under a magnifying glass under a very bright light. Roll it back and forth, Spend some time, hours if need be, looking at the bevel and its reflections. Try to identify by sight, the areas that did not get a burr. You will see a segment that shines when the bevel does not, or that does not shine when the rest of the bevel does. Roll that razor, and tip the nose upward and downward, to move the point of brightest reflection around. Learn how to visually analyze your edge. The alternative is to use the Burr Method, hardcore and with extreme malice. But oh, no! Mustn't do that! What will the forum bullies say? The HUMANITY!

So if the Burr Method is too strong for you and you want to use the weak sister hybrid method, you know what you gotta do. You STILL have to remove more steel, and keep removing steel until those irregularities are gone, and can no longer be detected with magnification. But you are STILL not done. You need to go a little more, to ensure that the bevel is fully developed. You can start with sets of half laps or circle strokes, maybe 20 strokes at a time per side, until you are ooooooh so close to finished, and switch to regular alternating laps. Use about a hand weight of pressure, then when you are ready to call it good, reduce pressure gradually to only the weight of the razor. Add a few pull strokes and another dozen of the lightest possible laps, and you should have a very nice bevel, ready for the progression. Try dragging the edge lightly on the base of your wet thumbnail. You should feel a very consistent dig and grab thing going on. If it skips then you may have found a dull spot, where the bevel never fully formed. You can also test a small segment with the HHT and you should get something better than HHT-0 if you have a proper bevel set at the 1k level. If you know nothing about the HHT, or Hanging Hair Test, see this link: http://www.coticule.be/hanging-hair-test.html. It should also treetop arm hair at just above the skin but likely will not treetop at 1/8" or higher above the skin. If it does, hooray for you!

Following this hybrid method of bevel setting, nobody who has an iota of reason in his pointy little noggin can possibly declare and believe that steel was wasted in pursuit of a bevel. This is because when the burr was honed away, there was still more steel to be removed. Okay, so what is the difference in amount of steel removed in total, between the hybrid method and a properly executed Burr Method? Almost no difference. You still have to keep removing steel until you reach a level where the two planes of the bevel meet at a good edge.

Now if your testing reveals areas of the edge where you get good results and areas where you get not so good results on a sharpness test, obviously you are not done. Doesn't matter if you have 18,000 laps on your magic stone. If you think you are done before you actually are, you are engaged in faith-based honing. You BELIEVE you have a bevel because by everything you hold to be true you should have one by now. You are doomed and your razor is going to Sharpness Hell.

Note that if you are setting the bevel with anything coarser than 1k, when you are nearly done, you should up the grit until you are at the 1k level or above. This ensures that when your bevel is finally set, your scratch depth is very reasonable and you have a leg up on the progression. Don't set the bevel on a Chosera 600 all the way out. If you like, start the process on the coarse stone, but finish the process at a finer grit. 1k to 2k works nicely.



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Closeup of Incomplete Bevel. The freshly honed part does not reach all the way to the edge yet.


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Another incomplete bevel.


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Another one. The light is from a different angle.


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The bevel is incomplete on this side but the other side has overreached and now a burr has been raised on this side. See how the very edge catches light.


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A burr forming. Looking from heel end toward the toe.


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Same view, light from a different angle
Pics are taken with my old Note 3 and it was difficult to get them in frame and in focus, so apologies. You will see worse, trust me. But I think you get the idea. You have to study the razor in the light, change the angles, try a magnifying glass or a loupe, to get a good idea of what is going on, visually. A burr can be detected with your fingertip sooner than with your eyeball, once you know what it feels like and how best to detect it. If you lightly run your fingertip from the spine to the edge and beyond, you should feel a faint catch, and if you flip the razor, you will not feel it on the other side. As for the incomplete bevel, depending on the angle of the light you may see the reflection from the developed bevel, or maybe for the raw undeveloped edge. Either way, it will be obvious that there is a discontinuity, and that honing must continue. Remember, if you don't get the bevel set, nothing you can do will make the edge shave properly. There is NO POINT IN CONTINUING WITH THE PROGRESSION if you do not get the bevel set properly before moving up in grit.

Honestly if you are just starting out, you are best off simply using the Burr Method and to hell with the nattering nabobs of negativity and their howls of outrage. But this method offers a compromise and a learning opportunity for those who want to follow the herd. Learning to recognize a completed bevel by eye, touch, feedback, and cutting ability will make you a more well rounded honer, that's a fact. Just please don't revert to Faith-Based Honing. If you have not yet read my explanation of just what that is, it is thinking at any time that a step MUST be completed by now because you BELIEVE that a particular amount of time or laps or prayer or living a good life will magically get the razor honed. In other words, a miracle. Save your faith for your religion. Don't be a faith based honer.
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I just realized that this article does not have any pics of the reflection from an unset bevel with the edge turned straight up at the camera. I will get some up next time I hone something, unless of course someone beats me to it. <hint hint>

<EDIT>
I forgot to mention that the Belomo 10x Triplet is, for our purposes, probably the best loupe made with the right magnification and field of view, high build quality, and an affordable price.
 
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