Northern England - couple of questions

Wondered if I could seek some advice on a couple of points.

1st, I appear to have a nick in the blade of my SR. It's so tiny I can't even get it to appear on a photograph, & I've tried with a decent camera & my mobile. It's probably about 1cm from the toe, & you can't even see it unless you really look. You can just feel it if you run the blade along your thumbnail. Sizewise, it's a fraction of a millimetre (like a pin head) in both depth & width, just that little bit where the edge of the blade shines when it catches the light. Even stropping seems to have reduced the amount it catches on my thumbnail, but it doesn't get rid of it. I've shaved once a couple of days ago when I first noticed it, & I can't say it caused me any problems, it just bothers me as I'm new to this & the razor is only about a month old. I have no idea how it happened or how long it's been there. Should I be getting it honed straight away, or do you think I'm okay to leave it until it needs honing?
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which leads me to my 2nd question, does anybody know anywhere in the North of England (I'm in Castleford, West Yorkshire) that does honing? I can't for love nor money seem to find anywhere, & all of my local barbers look at me like I'm a dingbat, some of them are even confused by the word "honing". It doesn't helping walking into a barbers when I'm a member of the folicly challenged club either. I did check the SRP classified sections but didn't see anything in the UK. Please correct me & direct me if I'm wrong.

Failing that, I would consider honing it myself with something gentle, but the Naniwa stones are too expensive for me (okay to expensive to explain the cost to the wife), & so are the Norton's, not that I can find anywhere to purchase the Norton's in the UK.

Would the 12K Chinese Waterstone at the bottom of the

Razor Hones

be a suitable starting hone just for touching up the edge, or are there any of the others that you would recommend from here, or would you just say leave it well alone for now?

Thank you in advance for any help.

0. Welcome among us!
1. I would get it honed before it might get bigger.
2. In UK I only know Taylors1000 here and on ebay.
3. I would get it honed by a professional.
Even though you buy a set of Naniwa, 95% you will destroy the edge as soon as you touch it with a stone and it will take you days to hone it again.

personally id send the razor to neil miller

here is his site

strop-shop.co.uk

normally he is lurking on tsr

Hi Kaden,

The presence of a tiny nick seems to produce strong opinions on the subject. Some are afraid it will tear their face up. I tend towards the other extreme of - if its shaving well - don't worry about it. I tend to enjoy the shave and not wear away any more steel until the shaves are starting to degrade. It sounds like yours is still shaving alright.

On question#2, I'm not smart about UK geography, but there are a couple of names I keep hearing great things about on their edges - and Neil Miller is one of them. If nothing else, it seems you could make use of his service with alot of confidence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pinklather

Hi Kaden,

The presence of a tiny nick seems to produce strong opinions on the subject. Some are afraid it will tear their face up. I tend towards the other extreme of - if its shaving well - don't worry about it. I tend to enjoy the shave and not wear away any more steel until the shaves are starting to degrade. It sounds like yours is still shaving alright.

On question#2, I'm not smart about UK geography, but there are a couple of names I keep hearing great things about on their edges - and Neil Miller is one of them. If nothing else, it seems you could make use of his service with alot of confidence.

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normally he has a 2+ week waiting list for restorations so that shows you people are prepared to wait for his work

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pinklather

if its shaving well - don't worry about it

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I share this opinion. The tiny nick will eventually hone out from just touch up honing.

For now I think I'll just keep an eye on it, & be careful. The moment it stops shaving okay I'll send it off. The reason I think I'd like somewhere local to get it honed is so I could watch & learn close up. I would like to be able to hone my own razor someday but it's one of those things that makes me nervous as I don't want to wreck my blade. I suppose you've got to actually dip your toe in the water someday & just go for it, but until I do I'll just have to watch a lot of videos.

I'll bookmark this so that I can remember Neil when I need it honing. My other option is send it back to The Invisible Edge where I bought the blade, I think either will be do a fine job.

Thanks for all the advice.

I've used my magnifier and I can just see the nick, If this were mine I would take the razor back to a Naniwa 1K stone and remove the tiny bite and then just move through the progression should be quite straight forward simple job.

Jamie

That's an Invisible Edge razor, you could return it to Steve at Introduction to razors for honing.

Regarding barbers, barbers are not alowed to use straight/cut throat razors (they use shavettes) in the UK so they wouldn't have or need to know about honing.

As Jamie says above, it should be a pretty easy fix with the correct hones, but as a begginer honing should be the least of your concerns, let someone else take care of your honing for now and you concentrate on the shaving:)

Good Luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaycey

Regarding barbers, barbers are not alowed to use straight/cut throat razors (they use shavettes) in the UK so they wouldn't have or need to know about honing.

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It's true. My barber insists that you're supposed to hone a blade the same way as you strop it—spine leading. I've tried to correct him but he won't have it. Although, does anyone know of any circumstances where you might hone spine leading??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by celticcrusader

I've used my magnifier and I can just see the nick, If this were mine I would take the razor back to a Naniwa 1K stone and remove the tiny bite and then just move through the progression should be quite straight forward simple job.

Jamie

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I wish I had the stones. That didn't come out the way I intended it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaycey

That's an Invisible Edge razor, you could return it to Steve at Introduction to razors for honing.

Regarding barbers, barbers are not alowed to use straight/cut throat razors (they use shavettes) in the UK so they wouldn't have or need to know about honing.

As Jamie says above, it should be a pretty easy fix with the correct hones, but as a begginer honing should be the least of your concerns, let someone else take care of your honing for now and you concentrate on the shaving:)

Good Luck!

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Good to know I'll be wasting my time chasing around for barbers. I will be using the razor again today, which will be the 2nd time since I noticed the nick, if it does affect shave in the slighest, then I'll stop using, send it off & revert to my mach 3 for a while. I couldn't even tell it was there last time I shaved & it was actually my best shave to date.

Thanks for the help, I'll keep you posted.

Well, shaved with the straight & no problems related to the blade that I can feel, just my amateur incompetence & inexperience. I'll keep my eye on it, & see if it can wait until it needs honing due to normal wear & tear.

Again, thanks for all the advice.

Hi,

I'm new to this too.

I've just sent a few razors to Neil Miller for honing. Reasonable prices and a decent enough chap.

Some barbers do still have the old skills. My barber in Newcastle, who I visit far too infrequently now being that I live in the south, can still hone and strop and he'll use my razor to shave me rather than a shavette.

They are very few and far between now though.

Good luck

Hello Kaden
The only real solution to your problem is to start off as you mean to go on and buy another razor from taylors who I believe is located not too far from cas while you send the razor off for the chip taking out.
I have noticed on one of his website sales he offers honing as a extra but not sure if this is a standard sevice.

Hi,
That's a razor from Steve Dempster at The Invisible Edge, based in Malvern. Try emailing Steve directly, he'll be able to sort it for you I should think. I've used both Steve and Neil Miller, Neil has Strop Shop UK.
Cheers,
Paul.

im certain taylors1000 is based in pontefract, which i believe is no more than 10 minutes away from castleford? maybe if you send him an email and just ask, he might even let you watch what he does... i bought my razor from him and we spoke to via email about honing my razor before it was sent and he seems a nice enough chap. (Although he didnt let me know about the blade imperfection on the razor i bought)

Thanks for this, it's nice to know there's somebody local to me who can help. I'll check that out.