Thread: New razor.. some slight blunting?

Hi folks, I just got a Wade & Butcher razor from a member here. The blade came just fine. However I've had 2 shaves since then and this afternoon I saw what I believe might be some blunting on about a 1/2 mm section in the middle of the blade.

I didn't have a strop to strop before the second shave. Is this perhaps a result of that? It seems unlikely to me, but I suppose anything is possible.

I have since borrowed one of my grandfather's old strops. It's VERY smooth, but obviously been used for a variety of blades and has many scuff marks. It's a Wagner's Oak Tanned Pony Shell. A quick google search finds little to nothing on the strop.

Anyway, I've watched videos on stropping and have stropped the blade a good many times since. The blunting area seems to have been cut in half since then but now there's still just a tiny area that doesn't seem to go away.

Now this is to say that if I use a pin and lightly drag it across to where I suspect the blunting is... it doesn't stop like Youtube says it should. However, if I glare light off the edge, there's a small area that reflects light when none of the rest of the blade does.

Does anyone have any ideas what I could do? I don't have any barbers hones and I'm not sure I'm ready for that until I have a 2nd blade in case I really mess up the first.

Thanks
D

PS. I have not dropped the blade or have any idea where this came from...

Hi D and welcome to SRP! First I would like to ask how does the razor shave? If it is shaving fine then there really no reason to worry about this at all.

From the description you have given I would think that this is normal wear and tear on the edge and can/ will work itself out with normal correct stropping. It sounds like your stropping has already fixed some of the problem but I would say to slow down and make sure you are getting even contact along the whole edge as it seems you are missing that one little area in your stropping.

Again welcome and best of luck in your endeavourer to learn the straight razor.

Well I haven't tried shaving with it since I noticed the scuff. I've tried slicing a few hairs in half since the stropping and it seems much sharper than when it first shipped to me 'shave ready' which indeed it was--but now seems almost too sharp.

But your point is taken to heart. I took a look at the strop very closely and there are some bends in the leather in a few points. Areas where it curves both vertically or horizontally. I assume this is NOT what I'm looking for in my strop. And as such, I hope my new strops come in soon...

I would suspect you won't notice the scuff while you are shaving but if you do then you would just stop and finish using what ever you have been using to shave with.

As to the stropping if you are using the x stroke for stropping it will compensate for some imperfections in the strop or blade. Like I said just slow down an make sure your getting the whole blade on the strop.

I also think your well on your way with stroping if you can get the blade to feel sharper then when it came off the stones. I personally find my blades seem sharper after a couple times shaving and stroping. And if you keep up your stroping like that your edge will last a very long time before needing any major touch ups

Try to strop on 50 linen side and 50 on leather. shave test. See what happens.Straight razor edge is so fine sharp any small mistake could hurt the edge.
hope this helps.

If you see a "blunted" area under lighting, then you have a section that is not beveled correctly. That section should not shave particularly well. If you do have a section that is not properly beveled, whether because of usage (unlikely) or having bumped it into something, stropping won't repair it. A barber's hone might help somewhat but a rehoning may be in the blade's future.