Thread: Razor Buying Tips for Newbies

Recently a new member here was having trouble with his razor and it was suspected that the razor was not shave ready. So, I volunteered to hone it for him. When the razor arrived it was a nice small hollow ground 4/8-5/8 square point razor. The problem with the edge was the fact that there was pitting on the blade, but particularly on the bevel and near the edge. Now, pitting above the edge or just in the bevel can be honed out, however, if you are honing into pits with no clean area close by, then there is no way to correct the shaving edge.
I sent the razor back honed to 12K on Naniwa stones and advised the person to buy another razor. the good part of the edge took a great edge, but the pitted parts, are still seen in the bevel. There are many sellers in the classifieds that sell shave ready razors for very reasonable prices. I know what it means for money to be tight, but you can get a great vintage blade here and see what you should look for the next time you are in the antique store and see a straight you might want.
Older and wiser users please reply and make sure I am not off base with this assessment. I felt bad because I could not solve the problem. I am not a "honemeister", but I do not thing this blade could have been honed properly due to the pitting. I have also made many mistakes so this is as much learning for me as it is to the new people here.
Thanks,
Trey

Trey,

You are so right. I have a couple that I'm not sure if I can get them to be truely "shave ready" or not due to where the pitting took place...the edge. I bought several at a antique store thinking that I could bring them back to life. Sure I have them looking good, but that's like having a Corvette sans motor. Rust can be quite deceptive on how deep it goes & you just don't know until you clean it up. I personally enjoy restoring SR's, so I take the good with the bad if I make a poor choice.

For a newer person wanting a true "shave ready" razor, the classifieds are a great place to go...Ebay is just "potluck" at best unless you are buying from a few choice sellers. I was recently fooled by a Ebay seller on a real clean looking razor only to find that they had polished the dickins out of it...edge too. It took over an hour on coarse stones to take out enough material to have a good straight edge.