I feel dumb having to post this question. I do understand that it is obviously wear caused by the hone. But where does it happen and how does it affect the razor/shave?
As far as I understand, it wears the spine down. If you hone with the spine uncovered it will slowly hone away as you are purposefully removing metal on the edge. If you see hone wear, you would rather see even hone wear. Uneven hone wear could indicate a non-even edge that could be trouble to hone later. If there is severe hone-wear, then the angle will be shallower when the razor is honed. Many of the honemeisters and straight shavers appear to use at least one layer of electric tape on the spine to keep hone wear from appearing and to adjust the bevel of the edge to make it easier to hone
Hone wear generally occurs on the spine of the razor. A bit of hone wear is normal. The type of hone wear you do not want to see is excessive or uneven hone wear - excessive hone wear (the spine has been really worn down) is usually accompanied by an associated narrowing of the blade as a whole. That's if you are lucky, because in that case the razor is still useable, more or less, because the geometry of the blade remains relatively intact, even though it is now a 4/8 instead of a 7/8 or whatever. Uneven hone wear is more problematic - this type of wear is generally what causes uneven bevels and wobbly, non-straight, edges. In particular, watch out for hone wear in the middle of the spine but not as much toward the edges - this is often associated with the frowning edge and is a real PITA to correct. The other way (smiling edge) is actually something I like to do to my blades, but of course never to excessive levels. In fact, I tape my spines to avoid too much hone wear, but that is optional. James.
it happens everywhere that the razor touches the hone during the honing stroke. Mostly the spine and the cutting edge's bevel. Sometimes it can be found on a razor's shoulder The only think that really affects the shave is the state of the cutting edge. If hone wear is bad enough though, you may not be able to put a cutting edge on the razor without some heavier work than simply rehoning Hone wear can be detrimental for resale value (people pay more for razors that look unused) and for ease of resharpening in the future. If hone wear is uneven along the spine, it may cause the razor to not lie on the hone as it should. [Edit: nice post by jimbo! as an example of the tape being optional, I do not use it when honing. All of the razors I sharpen already have hone wear ]
Thank you all for answering. I had seen the term used a lot but I didn't really know how it played into everything. The heirloom razor that I got I was told that it has significant hone wear and I'm looking at getting a 5/8 that has a mm of hone wear. The 5/8 looks good to me but I don't know really what to look at when buying a vintage razor.
Definition of good and bad hone wear is rather simple... Good hone wear is on the hone... Bad hone wear is on the razor :happy102 :happy102 :happy102
