Thread: First wedge help please

This is my first attempt at honing a wedge and its large there is a chip or nick out of the blade near the heel and it has a slight smile .I have done a few strokes one the one k stone useing the 45 angle stroke with no tape .But now to get those nicks out im thinking to use a couple of layers of tape and set the bevel. Any help or advice would be great, so these are the pics at the moment and i will take advice and give it a go and post pics and let you know what works when ive got it right. Thanks.

Go to youtube, search for gssixgun and his "Honing a smiling wedge" video.

I have already watched the video and its good but i think i need to deal with the nicks in the blade first thanks for the suggestion though.What im wanting to know is do i just keep honing untill i hone the nicks out or do i tape it change the bevel hone them out and then got back and reset the bevel.

Put on one to three layers of tape, hone until the chip is gone, reset the bevel with 1 layer, or no tape if you would like, and hone it up as usual.

Ok i will give it a go with 2 layers of tape and hone untill the chip is gone and then one layer of tape and mark the edge with texta and hone untill i have a nice even bevel let you know how it goes.thanks.

Welcome to the world of honing wedges. 45 deg or tape you will still need to remove the same amount of metal. Personally I prefer to use the angle and no tape because I hate using tape. Use it and you will see why. Ya gotta replace the tape when it starts to wear. The thing with the tape is that you can continue using the tape throughout you honing and will not need to reset the bevel after the angled honing. Bad part will be that you will be replacing the tape a lot and the angle may change depending on the placement of the tape and the grind quality of the blade. The most important part is to be sure you are having fun. Once that stops put the razor down and come back to it at a later time. Wedge honing takes a lot of patients and a smiling wedge (or semi wedge) takes even more. When I really need to use tape I cut it in half along it's length and lay it on the razor from toe and go past the heal into the shank. This piece of tape stays on for the whole honing process. The second and other layers go on top full width and I make sure they are on the first layer tightly. The first layer sets the angle. The last layer is replace as soon as it shows it is wearing through or sooner. This will help keep the angle close to the same for the whole honing process as long as the spine (where the hone wear shows) is flat and even for the whole length. This is not always the case. Good luck and be sure you are having fun, if not it will be hell or something close to it.