Quote Originally Posted by gugi View Post
OK I'll post again and elaborate more on my original advice. First I'll start with a simple observation from this thread so far:

The less experience a member has with honing, the more willing they are to recommend OP tries to fix it himself.

Now, in principle there is nothing wrong to try honing, I actually think learning to hone on a blade with a chip is the best way to go, as it takes some time to get the chip out which is a helpful practice.

However, his chances of success are less than 1%. So...

What does he have to gain from an attempt:
- experience (it can be done on another razor)
- satisfaction upon success (same as the previous point)
- $20 or so

What are the negatives from going this way:
- time - a lot of it
- pain from the bad shaves - a lot of it
- doubt - with just two shaves he has no idea what to shoot for, so will he be getting bad shaves because he can't shave, or because he can't hone?
- more hone wear on the razor than necessary - it's a nice razor and most people like them to stay that way if possible. Even if it gets eventually fixed the steel that's gone while learning cannot be put back.

I think the negatives outweigh the positives by a large margin.
But, of course, everybody can make the call themselves.

I normally am trying to be 'nicer' but getting good advice is the first priority.

I don't know if everybody paid attention, but the razor has a visible chip! It means the chip needs to go out and a new bevel be set. This last part is where virtually all newbies fail, no matter how good they think they are.

I will have to agree that the best way would be to learn on a crappy ebay razor.However, an old razor with uneven hone wear will be much more difficult to get shave ready than a new razor with a uniform bevel.The hone wear would not be good, but he could avoid that to a large extent by taping the edge.
Yes, he would have to reset the bevel, but this can be done with the norton 4000.I have done it many times, but it takes some effort.With a properly lapped hone, and some patience, I don't think that this would be an impossible task.I think you are plain wrong, when stating that less then one percent would be sucessfull.IMO the way with trial and error, is the best way to learn.As I stated, I was in the same situation, and came out fine.That was with a significantly more expencive razor, and it still shaves great as most of my razors do.And I have honed every singel one myself.

Kristoffer