Spine, back, straight?

**asbjorn** · 03-08-2008, 11:29 AM

On the razorblade, the spine, or back, or what it is called, is it normal that it is not completely straight?, that is, parrallel to the knives edge?

I bougth an cheap-cheap sanguine to try to learn on, since I want to wait a little about destroying my shumate, but the sanguine looks like the spine and the edge are not parallell.. thus I hone more from the front part of the blade, than the back part.

I am trying to hold edge part of the blade to the hone, and press the back part, to see if I can hone of some of the spine to make them even, but it takes time, even on an D8EE.. maybe I should just try the D8F for this part?

(I would guess that this knife is going to turn into an letteropener after some honing, so I'm not worried about it, just curious)

**TromboneGuy** · 03-08-2008, 11:36 AM

Some razors are just designed that way. You still want to lay the spine flat on the hone while honing or you'll wreck the bevel on the blade.

**asbjorn** · 03-08-2008, 11:43 AM

Ok, I only paid £9.49 for it, so im not worried about wrecking the edge, but interresting to know about it.

**JoePerri** · 03-11-2008, 03:08 PM

The aren't really designed that way, just made very poorly. That is a bad razor. The blade edge and spine are supposed to be parallel and in alignment. You might be able to correct the problem with a very coarse stone and a lot of time. It is much easier just to get a well made razor.

Joe

**asbjorn** · 03-11-2008, 03:17 PM

Ok, I thought they should be pararell.. hm, I can try to work a bit on it to se if I can get it closer.
It's easy to see where I need to take some of, it is narrover at the tip, and wider at the back (close to the shank?)

**Chrisl** · 03-13-2008, 08:10 PM

Here's a simple test to use with any razor, new or used to asses whether it's flat on both sides. I do this test before ever making the initial pass on a hone; it tells me if I'm in for an easy job, a difficult job or a not worth my time or testing the limited patience I have and toss it in a "rainy day" challenge drawer.

Testing the first side is simple: Lay the blade on a flat surface and see if there are any areas that are not laying perfectly flat. I take a post it, and try to slip it under the toe and the heel. Not too shabby on this TI on this side.

Picture 024.jpg

Now, unless you want to peek over the edge and view the edge in reverse when you flip the blade, switch hands/sides of the hone and you still have the edge on that side facing you as well like this:

Picture 021.jpg

Whoa, what did we have up there? Bad TI, Naughty TI!

I wouldn't have caught this if I hadn't flipped the blade and viewed it this way and instead would have completely wasted time trying to set a bevel that would pretty much never be set using conventional methods on a 3" wide hone.

Picture 023.jpg

You know I still don't like that razor. It's been in that "rainy day" drawer I mentioned earlier. I'm going to have to take more time, say screw hone/spine wear and just go to town on that thing or....monkey around with some narrow hones.

I hope this test saves some unnecessary honing time in the future. IMO honing shouldn't be a mystery or at the least, I don't want problem razors like this one give the air of mystery when in reality they're just flawed in something more than a minor way.

Chris L

**joke1176** · 03-15-2008, 02:11 PM

narrow hone for the win! You can get away with a lot if you use a narrow hone...
Is it the right thing to do? Probably not, but you can make a real troublemaker of a razor shave-ready (and that's what it's all about, right?) without removing 1/32 of metal from the edge.

If you are like me, you obsess about symmetry issues as noted above, heh.

**asbjorn** · 03-15-2008, 03:15 PM

For my sanguine (top of thread), I used a little/lot force on D8C and D8E before setting the bevel. I'm not very worried about honewear and the spine on that one, but I think I got it better, the edge is almost even on it now, almost...

I have an old shumate and an new dovo, both was very nice to hone, very even. the Dovo maybe was making strange noises on one of the sides, but I guess it will wear off after some time. But otherwise these two just gliding along the hones.

Narrow hone for this could maybe be ok, but when I was honing, I tried an narrow verycoarse one for the sanguine, but I have trouble managing to move the knive in good xpattern, have to practice more I guess.