Thread: Dropped Razor, my worst nightmare!

Hello,

I dropped my dovo best quality 5/8 1/4 hollow a few months ago a now i'm having problems getting it honed. No chip but a bend. Very slight bend only in the toe, tried to show a picture but none would show the problem. Imagine holding the razor edge up pointing away from you the toe of the edge would bend unnoticeably to the left. i can only see it when i hone. The problem is when i hone: the outward curve side is easy to hone cause i just do a rolling but the other side about one cm behind the tip wont completely hone. Most of the difficulty is setting the bevel as i have a narrow coti that seems to get in. I tried laying my finger on the little "bulge" to see if i can get contact but doing that don't make a good edge.

Any suggestions? Can i bend it back? Can i hone it out? I'm sure somebody here had a similar problem, that could lend some experience.

Razor steel is notoriously hard and brittle. To apply enough force to cause such damage (I would think) would cause the steel to just shatter or crack not bend. Are you sure the razor wasn't warped to begin with and under close scrutiny of the mishap you first realized this?

That is possible i didn't think of that. I could have only noticed it when looking for damage. I suppose seeing damage when you expect to find some would do that. i must stress that it is a slight bend but it does seem like i can't get that one portion of the bevel, on one side to fully sharpen. I did it once but it takes way more time then usual.

Honing this razor is hit and miss for sure. i guess bending it back is unwise...

Might be, or it might be a daring solution.

From all I can observe of the Dovo methods of heat treatment, I expect their blades to be tougher than what tradition would dictate about razors being noted as brittle. It doesn't sound like a bad bend. If it's a smooth curve and not a kink, the first thing to try would be two sturdy flat pieces of material that can be pressed together. These should be at least a few times longer than the area of the bend so they will set a straight length longer than the area bent. These flats should not ride up onto the hollow but remain on the flat aspect of the blade nearest the edge. A pair of pliers and a good squeeze may do the trick. If the bend is stressed enough and this fractures the blade, it's a risk you are going to take. If this bend has stressed the steel to take a set, bending it back to flat may be too much for it and it will crack. If you can't take the risk, honing around the bend is the only other correction.

These are the two sides to the equation.

Is this your only razor, Nathaniel?

I guess you could always convert it into a stubby....

I have one other razor Hirlau, an old Sheffield that a wonderful razor to use. I thought about stubby but the damage isn't that great. Thanks Mike for a explanation of a process to take, i'll try it with a much pressure as i'm willing to use. Could i hone past it? It would make an irregular bevel but is it possible to level out?

Thanks guys for your input, it's hard to think about it when you can't see it in front of you.

I understand Hirlau's concern. But my recommendations risk your razor that is whole at this point. That it bent first rather than breaking, makes me feel that it might tolerate a bend back to straight. I would not suggest you attempt to straighten it if you weren't comfortable and willing to take that risk, especially if it was your only blade.

I was lucky this past weekend to watch some real hone masters work out some blade problems. There were a lot of old razors present and many of them had irregular bevels. Far more than I would have thought would have got through "quality control" in this day and age. It seems that back then, if you could hone a shaving edge onto a blade, it would be fine for shaving. The companies were probably making them as fast as they could and appearance was of less concern than the performance of the tool. It may be possible to hone past the problem.

My question was based on an offer to send you a shaver, if that Dovo is your only razor. You can ship it back when your R.A.D. kicks in.