I am about my fifth 'clumsy' drop into shaving, and I've learned a few things (NEVER shave nekkid) the most suprising thing is that a notched blade shaves fine. My 'starter' razor has 3 or 4 very distinct 'dinks' in it. The first time I 'dinked' it against the sink side, I went down to 140 grit and erased the flaw. Fine.

On the following divots, I was lazy and worked it for a bit on the binsui then worked up. What I've found it that the razor shaves just fine with these visible notches in the blade. What's surprising to me is that even I intentionally shave with the notched area, I can't feel the imperfection. Nor does it leave a path of unshaved hair.