Thread: Help with shaving techniques

Originally Posted by wolfmanXIII

However...I did something I'm really worried about. After cleaning and sanitizing my razor last night I was closing the blade and was holding onto the foot-end of the plastic scales while doing so. Apparently that was just enough pressure to push the sides of the scales in and the blade lightly touched and bit into the plastic a little. I spent probably 20 minutes looking at it in every different angle I could to see if I had bent the blade at all, luckily it looks like I didn't. Then I ended up stropping for about the next hour 10 passes on the canvas and probably 50 or more on the leather. I'm kind of worried, but I'll be testing it out again on Friday sometime and hopefully it will work, luckily though since I got it from SRD I've got free honing for life.

If the edge contacted the scales at all it's very likely that the edge was damaged (even though you couldn't see any damage). It is so delicate that it's unlikely to have escaped without some damage. Even minor edge damage could adversely affect your shave, to the point of cutting the skin in some cases.

The edge may have bent slightly, and your stropping may have re-aligned it, but still I'd be very wary of using a blade that 'bit into the plastic' of the scales.