Thread: 18th century honing / convexed blade face

Hi guys, a question on honing. I've been honing hollow grounds / wedges / smiles for a while, but got one of the old nike swoosh razors ~1800 and am not sure what to do. I'll try to get pics up soon but it looks very similar to the razor in this thread, except more curved upward: What's the "barber's notch" for?. Anyway, there seems to be a bit of convexing to the whole blade face so that I get contact on the hone as in this drawing, where the bevel and spine both curve back off the hone:

Any ideas on how to tape a blade this curved? Maybe make tape cutouts? Or is this just something that needs a regrind or more advanced honing? Thanks, and I'll try to get pics up soon.

Why tape? Those razors probably weren't honed flat on the stone back in the day. Just hone it freehand.

Most would likely add several layers of tape and do a rolling-x stroke. I'm not sure honing free hand would be the best solution, you might end up with bevels on top of bevels and a razor that gives cruddy shaves.

I was debating freehand but don't think I have near enough experience to pull it off. I'll try taping up at the top of the spine and see how that works out.

A convex bevel may give false result with the thumb pad test, but the shaving quality should not be affected, plus its edge will last for at least twice as much shaves compared to a flat edge. Rolling x stroke might be a problem, I would suggest to hone it carefully like a very expensive knife, and then strop it as you would with razors.

Marker test is your friend here. Be prepared to invent strokes as you go along, and you may indeed have to lift the spine a bit, most likely at the heel, a sort of sweeping rolling stroke. Should be fun.

I would start out with a minimum of 3 layers of tape along the spine, make sure you have the tape draped over the spine evenly so that there are equal amounts of tape along both sides of the spine the length of the blade. Use the magic marker to tell you what is going on along the edge, add more tape if needed.
Use a Nike swoosh stroke.