Could I hone this razor?

I just received my first straight through the post and although I haven't sorted the lapping film that I propose to use with it yet, I was wondering if somebody could have a quick look at these pictures and tell me if there are any huge problems with this blade that are likely to trip a beginner up? I apologise for the poor quality of the shots, I took them with an iPad because the card reader I use with my digital camera stopped working recently. Hopefully they will at least give you some idea of the state of the blade though.





I don't know if it's normal or not but the curve of the blade looks a little off-centre to me in the first shot. Having looked at these pictures again, I realise they are worse than I thought so perhaps they are just not good enough for anybody to evaluate the blade....

EDIT: I forgot to say that the blade does not feel very sharp on my thumb although it does shave arm hairs, just not particularly well. The only blemish near the cutting edge that I can see is the small black spot in the second picture.

If you are asking about the slight smile, or upward curvature of the blade then yes, that shouldn't be a problem at all. Just apply a slight rolling X stroke. ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHZ4rmL-6Fg )

Now if there is some funky sideways twisting motion to the blade that isn't visible from the picture then you may have another problem. This being your first straight, I would encourage you to send that out to somone who is competent with honing so you can get a benchmark for what you would be looking for from your edges in the future. It is a lot easier to learn how to shave with a properly honed straight razor too. (One less variable in the mix.)


Here are some examples of more honing strokes. http://www.coticule.be/strokes.html
There is a lot of good info in the sharpening academy there. Not everything on that site is exclusive to Coticules.

Good luck!

Hi and thanks for your comments. I meant the fact that when you look at the blade head on, as in the top picture, it looks to me like it hollows out a little more on the right than on the left.

I would definitely send it out if it was practical but because I am in Thailand, the cost of doing so once return postage was factored in would be around 5 times what I paid for the razor. (I bought this one because it looked fairly clean and was going cheap basically).

Hmm... I guess you would have to hone it to find out if there is an issue... I'm sure we have a few members on here that are located in Asia and are competent at honing. They may be able to point you in the right direction. Or you could just do a lot of reading and give it a go. I would hold off for a few days if I were you. You never know, there may be someone that can help.

The only time a wave like that would concern me is if the blade had been buffed so thin that it was no longer elastically flexible. That certainly doesn't look to be the case from the images. It should hone up fine. Worst case your bevel will look uneven. Not a big deal.

OK, cheers. I have to start somewhere I guess so might as well be with this razor.

@Kcnwea - I'll certainly be taking my time and I won't be doing anything about it for a few days at least but I'm not very confident that I'll find somebody living nearby who knows what they're doing. I will definitely be doing a lot more reading / watching videos beforehand in any case.

You should have absolutely no issues honing that.

Thanks.

I'm pleased that it looks as clean up close as it did on eBay but being inexperienced I thought I should check that I won't be starting with a handicap.