Thread: Slightly damaged blade

I made a silly mistake- reached over my sink with the blade in the right hand, and gently hit the faucet dead on. It was subtle enough that it barely made a sound, but enough that it made a small 1/16" length nick easily seen in the light, although it's barely dented. Here's a brief iPhone video, although very difficult to see:
http://bradyjfrey.com/bf/blade.mov

Suggestions for fixing this? Better to send it in and have it re-honed or is there a home method for working this out? Since it's at the end, it doesn't often touch my face, but enough to cause me a concern.

Faucet dings are the most common fix for a Honemeister followed closely by the infamous Bathroom floor slam

Any one of the competent guys listed in the classifieds can fix it...
or if you have the proper stones/hones I might could talk you through it...

I'd be game to try it myself, but you'd have to even go so far as to tell me what stones I'd need to get!

Sounds like a good idea to get a backup blade too, just in case I repeat this issue...

well here's my version of how to do it yourself.

you will need 1k 4k and 8k hones, or if you want to spend several hours (let's say 5) to remove the chip on a slower hone 4k and 8k would do.
so the norton 4000/8000 combo would be the very minimum.

first you lap the hone (see the wiki tutorial for doing it with sandpaper).
then you would put electrical tape on the spine (i'd say 3 layers so that when you put a bit more pressure on the blade it'll still work well).
then on the 1000 or 4000 you hone in circles or up and down the hone switching sides every say 50 strokes and using the same amount of pressure and number of strokes on each side until the chip is gone. this is the time consuming process. (get a cheap magnifier to make sure you don't stop prematurely). at this point raising slurry on the hone is the way to speed up the process, the only problem is that I wouldn't use sandpaper for that because I'm afraid it'll leave some sandpaper grits in and those are coarse and damaging to the edge.
once the chip is gone you would use only one layer of tape (or no tape at all) and very very little pressure to set the bevel so that it is very sharp (it's a ti, so it should be popping armhairs, or at least shave effortlessly at skin level). this is the most critical step, no point of moving further until yo accomplish it.
once that's done, do 50 x-pattern strokes on the 4k hone, at this point the strokes have to be light. then do another 30 on the 8k hone and that's it.
realistically it may not shave too well, so perhaps the best way at this point is to use the pyramid method (read on it in the wiki). the lighter, more uniform, and consistent your strokes are the better the razor will shave.

Amazon has the entire Norton starter set for $120 shipped free...

http://www.amazon.com/Norton-Waterst...7&sr=8-1-fkmr0

That has all the stones and more than what Gugi just explained about...and you get a lapping stone,,, maybe not a great one, but it does work...

If you have the skills and equipment to hone it out, i'd say go for ith. Otherwise, you may want to consider sending it out to a honemeister.

Originally Posted by sapito318

If you have the skills and equipment to hone it out, i'd say go for ith. Otherwise, you may want to consider sending it out to a honemeister.

I'd have to say you're right - although I do want to learn this, I don't think I want to gamble with my nice new blade.

Thanks gssixgun & gugi for the great advice; I'll purchase that set and start learning on some backup blades, so the knowledge is very much appreciated and helpful. Looks like I'll be sending in my blade for another hone.

Okay. Here's my two cents. You won't be the first to do this and you sure won't be the last, so don't feel bad.

I've done this twice and I've been able to strop it out. Look at the blade with a magnifier or microscope. The damage on my blade looked like a tiny dent -- no chipping. If the blade is not chipped you can try to strop it but you have to be careful so you don't damage your strop. Maybe start with the backside and very short strokes. If the back of your strop is pasted even better.

If the blade leaves a mark on the strop it's going to leave a mark on your face. Send it to a pro. If the strop looks clean you can try to strop it out and just use caution when you shave with it.

I could see both small nicks under a strong light but my strop showed no damage and I noticed no problems shaving. The blade has been sharpended since, but I got a lot of good shaves out of it before sending it in.

Originally Posted by ziggy925

I've done this twice and I've been able to strop it out. Look at the blade with a magnifier or microscope. The damage on my blade looked like a tiny dent -- no chipping. If the blade is not chipped you can try to strop it but you have to be careful so you don't damage your strop. Maybe start with the backside and very short strokes. If the back of your strop is pasted even better.

Sounds like what mine looks like then - I've been shaving with it all week without problems, but I've also been consciously trying to avoid that back edge a bit just in case.

I have been trying to strop it out, and it looks to be improving but it's still obvious. I'll ride it out for a few days; purchased a cheaper end Dovo on Friday to back this one up, so I'll do a switch-a-roo once that guy comes in, and send this guy out.

Unfortunately, I've been getting a poor shave out of it lately, and I'm hoping that's due to technique issues on my part, and not a larger problem with the blade. We shall see!

Green paste... that stuff rocks. Damn near took the whole thing out in 20 passes, and sharpened my blade something nice, thanks for the recommendation!

Now I have to learn when to use that and when not too - I imagine I could abuse it, and it shouldn't be an every day thing.