Thread: Repeated chips -- issue with steel quality?

What were you doing, when it chipped.?

Just shaving. No drops, no contact with the faucet.

Although I have personally not had any experience with Nates, but he’s Tim Zowads son so I would think he would know how to build a great razor. But if you do some reach I bet you can contact him and get it resolved

I do know from first hand experience that his dad will do it right

No, not defective steel but there are some razors that do have a tendency to chip with normal use way more than others. If you hone your own razors many of these razors take some special techniques to keep them from chipping as you hone.

Ask me how I know, Har har.

Yes, that's exactly what I was wondering, but didn't express clearly -- could normal use cause a chip?

I do some honing but am not highly experienced in this. I do have a 1K, 3/8K, and 12K. Any helpful honing tips would be appreciated.

I found with my problem razors at the lower grits there was no problem. Once I got up to 8K and above is where I'd start to get tiny micro chips. To tell you the truth I sold off those razors years ago and I don't remember what my solution was. I know I had to get some different hones which was step one but more importantly the technique to hone had to be modified.

However I did bring this up years ago and it is buried in the honing forum somewhere.

Steve:
I have honed many of these chippy razors, they can all be somewhat different and problematic to hone. Sometimes I have used an all natural progression once I honed out the chip, J-Nats can be a good solution.
Also a patient approach setting the bevel with a 3k synthetic and a light touch and proceeding with small jumps also with a light hand can sometimes give the solution if synthetics are used.
I believe some of this trouble comes from hard brittle steel and then leaving low grit stria as the honer progress's up through the progression, under the microscope I usually see these chips forming at the termination of these low grit > remnant scratches with the edge. They seem to erode into chips through normal shaving.
I would be happy to help by honing this edge for you if you like. PM me

Regards Frank