Another day, another razor

I felt the urge to buy a new razor and had been after a Friodur for a long time, mostly due to reading all the great things on here about them.
I saw one advertised as NOS and the price seemed ok so I took the plunge.

It arrived today and apart from the scales being very tight in one position and very loose in another; it seemed ok... until I noticed the huge scratch running down the side of the blade :eek: It appears superficial but I have so far only learnt to hone and any problems beyond the edge of the blade I have no clue with.

I've tried polishing it out but had no luck. Is there anything else I can try which is easy and might make the mark less obvious? (apart from taking a dremel to it).

Thanks.

It looks worse in real life than in the photo:

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/2408/frio.jpg

I would stay away from the Dremel if I were you. Anything else you do to it will effect the surrounding metal and probably will be as noticeable as the scratch. I would take it to my shop and touch the buffing wheel to fix it, but I have practiced on a bunch of junk blades and learned what not to do. Probably not everything there is to learn but enough to know it can be dangerous. Also note that I was a Tool and Die Maker for may years so I am familiar with metal work.

Well, if you have a Dremel and some buffing wheels for it you can use some white polishing compound or some car polishing compound on it. Be sure to keep the wheel spinning from the spine to the bevel. Run it the other way and it will catch the edge and break the blade.

You may notice that this changes the finish on the blade and you may need to do that whole side of the blade so it looks uniform. If you flip it over to do the other side be aware of the wheel rotation.

You may be able to bring it to a jeweler and see if they can polish it out for you. If you've never done this it may be a wise choice.

Another option would be to send it to somewhere here on SRP that does restores. It's a simple fix but it is also simple to destroy the blade doing it.
:gl:

Thanks Joed. You're right, learning how to smooth it out is not something I want to do on a beauty like this. I'll drop invisibleedge an email and ask if they do stuff like this. There don't seem to be many UK based restorers and jewellers here may not know what to do with a blade.
I shall also tell the seller since this is an additional cost I wasn't expecting.

It's a shame that it was scratched like that, but the bevel still looks to be in good shape. If you don't mind the superficial damage, you could probably get lots of good shaves with it. I have one and I love mine. Honed by the man himself.

Great picture, by the way.