Bonko Boker?

I just received this 6/8" Boker Elite razor in the mail, it looks like they mis-ground the blade. A ridge or bevel towards the edge is very noticeable on one side of the blade, on the other side there is a contour there, but its blended fairly well. Is this normal for a Boker? Thks

Can you take a picture of each side of the blade without the shadow. In short order the pros will respond with their opinions. Try to focus as close to the blades edge as possible.

more pics

Lighting can really affect how pictures are interpreted by the viewers. The last picture looks like a normal S.R. blade. Have you shaved with the razor and does it have a "Real Shave Ready Edge".

Out of the box it wasn't sharp, instructions advised to sharpen before shaving. I don't have issues with the edge, I do have questions about the grind on the blade. Its advertised as a fine hollow grind.

My questions are about the way they ground the blade, they ground down to about 1/4" from the edge and left a prominent ridge on the blade. As you can see on the pic on the non etched side the grind is also uneven. I was wondering if this is normal for a Boker?

I would visit the B&B hobbyist page and find a member who specializes in honing S.R. It's very difficult to shave with a razor that isn't "Truly Shave Ready. B&B member Bayamontate has a #1 customer satisfaction rating for honing members S.R.

i got mine brand new, did my own honing, no issues so far. i actually love my boker elite. the grind is even, perfect.



whiskey08, the spine of your boker elite looks different from the spine of my razor.

Saj_J

I think the spine is the same, just the angle of the pic that makes it look different. Yours has a nice clean grind, can you see how mine has a ridge in the grind about 1/4" from the edge? Now that I see yours, mine pisses me off and im gonna send it back.

The first two photos seem to show a very clear transition between grinding passes on the non- show or non- face side of the razor. I believe I see exactly what you are talking about and I believe if you could measure the blade with calipers or micrometers, you would find the blade will have a wedge- type shape from the edge to the transition line about 1/4 of the distance toward the spine.

In my opinion, that razor was not quite finished properly and is either too thick just behind the edge, or too thin around the center of the blade. If it were mine, I would send it back and get a different one.

That is a beautiful by the way (the design, not that very particular one) and a very nice copy of a Dovo Bismark.

Brian

Whiskey08 said:

more picsView attachment 561127View attachment 561128

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Dovo Bismark, now you tell me, lol. I was just looking at pics of the Dovo at straightrazor.com and I can see the exact same grind and ridge on the dovo. Ah well no matter. Thanks for the replies gents.

whiskey08... best way to deal with this is just to return it. am curious though, where did you purchase your elite boker?

Jarod from The Superior Shave hung this on Facebook in regards to this thread:

Someone pass a message along to this fellow before all the circular non-confirmation confirmations confuse him even further; the ridge he's highlighted is SUPPOSED to be there! This is the way that Germans produce what they define as a full hollow grind, by a step that involves a convex grinding wheel taken parallel to the razor's edge line - EVERY SINGLE SPECIMEN of this razor will show this line under the right light. The better the polish of the razor the less it will show, but it is always there. The higher towards the spine that the line appears, incidentally, the better the hollow grinding. But the line IS NOT a defect! http://badgerandblade.com/…/showthread.p…/451069-Bonko-Boker

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This looks like a Bellied hollow grind to me and it is normal on some German razors, maybe others, I have a Wacker 7/8th's that has the same kind of grind and I think my big Bartman has this grind also.
Without inspecting this particular razor I can't say if the execution of the grinding is well done or not but I think it's safe to say that the slight swell seen just up from the edge is supposed to be there. It's what sets a Bellied Hollow apart from other hollow grinds.

i think is usually a little less apparent (if yer pics are accurate), but i have seen this on many old German razors

KW Driver, Jarod, Zanzibarstoilet

That was the question, if that ridge in the grind is normal. Either way the grind or polish is uneven from one side to the other, and not straight on one side. That led me to believe the grind in general was not correct. Thks

that thing's done by hand, i suspect, so maybe no shoulder makes/affects changed angle? Dunno. But i do see it on many of my old blades, sometimes can feel the division point by hand with eyes closed and sometimes no, sometimes ridge perfectly straight and some a little wavy. So if u can feel it and it is a little wavy, i don't think that it so unusual-what i focus more is when that ridge is high up the grind seems more hollow to me, so buy the highest-up one u can find, straight or otherwise. Not a fotog but will see if i can find bright light and figure out how to post here

A belly on a full hollow should be reasonably tidy. The whole point is to impart some stiffness to the edge in a consistent way..

don't think the belly on the full hollow's there to impart stiffness if my pigeon German's worth a damn; what I interpret is that it is there to impart FLEXIBILITY to the edge, not stiffness

I don't think having added steel in the belly is gonna make it more flexible, however it does seem to complement a technique for getting extra hollow razors which would be more flexible.

What I've read is that the belly make the grind less fragile

But it's also apparently a remnant of using more than one wheel to get that hollownes .

How did it shave?