I'm relatively new to straight razor shaving, honing and collecting, but going through my small pile of SRs I have found an issue. I don't know how common or serious it is.
Two of my recently acquired SRs don't have the same spine thickness from the toe to the heel. The spines ate thicker at one end, and thinner at the other - and by a significant amount I think (20% in one case).
Exhibit 1. Modern production SR acquired from Amazon before I even found this forum (after reading a lot here I probably wouldn't purchase that one now, but hey-ho). At first I suspected it may be a modded GD 1996, but now after getting a 1996 I'm pretty certain it isn't. It doesn't shave well, even after 2 attempts at honing. I did some measurements, and I think I may know why. The spine is thicker at the toe and thinner at the heel, the difference is about 0.5mm. The calculated bevel angles are 14 degrees at the toe, 12 degrees at the heel.
Exhibit 2. Vintage English SR, Spanish point. It's in pretty good condition, have not tried to hone or shave with it yet. Reasonably sharp as received, shaves hair on my forearm but not tree tops. It has a similar problem - the spine is thinner at the toe than at the heel, and is too thick for the width of the blade. Calculated bevel angles 18.2 degrees at toe, 20.4 degrees at heel. The spine profile is also uneven, it gets thicker at a slow rate until about mid-blade (angle in mid-blade is 18.6 degrees) and then curves outward quicker. Again the difference is about 0.5mm between toe and heel, but because this spine is on average thinner it makes for a bigger percentage difference.
Now my questions.
1. How big of a problem is it? With a spine not parallel to the blade edge, this IMO will cause issues with honing, setting the bevel etc.
2. Should I try to correct it by grinding the spine? I'm willing to sacrifice the modern razor to the stochastic gods, but probably not the vintage one.
3. What method to use for correction? Obviously the spine would need to be ground more the the thicker end, and less or not at all at the thinner one. Also it needs to be done symmetrically on both sides as to not make the blade warped. And gradually less as one progresses to the thick to the thin end.
4. Does it even need to be corrected? Can I get around it by other means - taping only half or 1/3 of the spine at the thinner end during honing, would that work?
Please feel free to chime in, especially if you've encountered/dealt with this issue before. Any advice appreciated!
(also I'm wondering how common this is; I only have a small sample of razors, 5 pieces of which 2 have uneven spines. Seems high proportion to me, or maybe it's just my usual ironic luck)
Two of my recently acquired SRs don't have the same spine thickness from the toe to the heel. The spines ate thicker at one end, and thinner at the other - and by a significant amount I think (20% in one case).
Exhibit 1. Modern production SR acquired from Amazon before I even found this forum (after reading a lot here I probably wouldn't purchase that one now, but hey-ho). At first I suspected it may be a modded GD 1996, but now after getting a 1996 I'm pretty certain it isn't. It doesn't shave well, even after 2 attempts at honing. I did some measurements, and I think I may know why. The spine is thicker at the toe and thinner at the heel, the difference is about 0.5mm. The calculated bevel angles are 14 degrees at the toe, 12 degrees at the heel.
Exhibit 2. Vintage English SR, Spanish point. It's in pretty good condition, have not tried to hone or shave with it yet. Reasonably sharp as received, shaves hair on my forearm but not tree tops. It has a similar problem - the spine is thinner at the toe than at the heel, and is too thick for the width of the blade. Calculated bevel angles 18.2 degrees at toe, 20.4 degrees at heel. The spine profile is also uneven, it gets thicker at a slow rate until about mid-blade (angle in mid-blade is 18.6 degrees) and then curves outward quicker. Again the difference is about 0.5mm between toe and heel, but because this spine is on average thinner it makes for a bigger percentage difference.
Now my questions.
1. How big of a problem is it? With a spine not parallel to the blade edge, this IMO will cause issues with honing, setting the bevel etc.
2. Should I try to correct it by grinding the spine? I'm willing to sacrifice the modern razor to the stochastic gods, but probably not the vintage one.
3. What method to use for correction? Obviously the spine would need to be ground more the the thicker end, and less or not at all at the thinner one. Also it needs to be done symmetrically on both sides as to not make the blade warped. And gradually less as one progresses to the thick to the thin end.
4. Does it even need to be corrected? Can I get around it by other means - taping only half or 1/3 of the spine at the thinner end during honing, would that work?
Please feel free to chime in, especially if you've encountered/dealt with this issue before. Any advice appreciated!
(also I'm wondering how common this is; I only have a small sample of razors, 5 pieces of which 2 have uneven spines. Seems high proportion to me, or maybe it's just my usual ironic luck)
