Thread: restoration of frowned razor, unable to bring back to shave ready

Hello everyone,

I have had this razor that I bought off ebay, in fact it was the first razor that I bought off there and at the time didn't know what to look for in a good razor. Anyways, the razor has been lying around for a year and I thought I would finally restore it. Except for the frown, the razor is in excellent condition.

I used the breadknife method on a DMT (with one layer of tape) in order to get rid of the frown and that worked fairly well. I used gsixxgun's video on blade restoration. In my ignorance, maybe because I felt that I didn't have to breadknife that much and wanted to preserve the blade as much as possible, I went straight to setting a bevel on Naniwa 1k. Needless to say, at 4k and 8k it wouldnt shave any arm hair.

So I went back to the DMT and attempted to set a bevel at that stage, gradually decreasing the angle. This time I used three layers of tape. I did a couple of laps, as well as used Honing a damaged blade - Straight Razor Place Library and followed the instuctions there. Then I removed two layers of tape and went to 1k and 4k. At 4k (and I think even at 1k) now I was able to shave off some arm hair. Unfortunately, as I progressed through the stones, the blade didnt get much better.

So I'm not really sure right now whether I should go back to the DMT and redo the bevel setting there, or I should go back to the 4k and refine the edge. If I shave off arm hair does that means that the bevel is set?

I am also wondering whether I should redo the whole bevel again and this time use a magic marker test, but Im not sure whether I can use that at the DMT or 1k level.

Final thing, I believe the blade was originally supposed to be meant to be smiling, and now I made it absolutely straight at the blade. If I measure the width of the blade at the center, it is about 0.02 inches less than the width at the heel and toe. I was thinking about going back to the breadknifing technique in order to make more of a smile, ie round it off at heel and toe, but then Im kinda worried that it would mess up its geometry.

Pic of said razor ????

If the frown was bad the spine will reflect it unless someone used finger pressure on the edge to create it.
You may need to work on the spine rather than tape it but as Glen asked " Pics of said razor ?"

I say send it out to a pro. (I can HIGHLY recommend Glen)
They will get it back to workable condition if it's possible and you can go from there.

Who is the maker of that razor?

its a stiz 58. On the front it says "Stolichnaya". It was manufactured in USSR.

The center of the spine is a little worn but not drastic..

I don't see anything that should stop that razor from popping a bevel, it is just going to take some work..

Honing and Edge restoration are two very different things

I would go 1k and no tape until it's all flat and level but that can be pretty brutal to the spine. In fact, if the spine is the cause, one wonders if you could tape the edge and hone flat to grind the spine on purpose (blasphemy).

On the other hand, heel and toe-leading strokes might be all you need.

Follow Glen's advice first.

I have a razor like this that I haven't touched yet because it is badly frowned. I think the PO must have sharpened it without the spine touching the stone, and the tang lower than the stone. Or something. Might be a letter opener.

To me I also think that a shaving edge can be put on that blade. I would guess that as you're asking if the bevel has been set you're unsure of how to tell/test, I'd recommend you check the library on here for bevel setting and work consistently with a test that works for you. Some blades seem to take forever, for these I usually do them in stages leaving off when I start to lose patience. I'd also recommend a good quality jewellers loupe. It all takes time and practice, I'm finding that blades I honed from bevel set to "shave ready" over a year ago need more work now that I can feel the difference.