Thread: Razor Blade Nick

Hi All,
I have recently (well afew months ago) purchased a new dovo straight razor. All was going well until i dropped it and the blade hit the metal tap and now there is a tiny nick in the blades edge.
How can i fix the nick?
I am guessing i will need to hone it with a stone now. If this is the case then what stone should i be getting? I have seen a 6-8k stone on ebay for a reasonable price, would something like that suffice?

Cheers

It will certainly need honing out. 6-8k may do it, depends how big the nick is. What 's the stone you're looking at?

First, welcome to SRP! If you have to ask which hone to use I would suggest sending the razor to a pro to have it honed properly. Learning to hone and how to shave with a straight razor is very challenging. Honing a straight razor is not rocket science but is loaded w/ lots of nuances which will effect the razor's shave quality. Check the classifieds on the menu bar above under member's services for a list of people providing this service. Next suggestion, when your budget allows get a second straight razor. When the first one starts tugging switch to the second and then try your hand at honing. Touching up an edge is a lot easier than honing out chips. Good luck.

Thanks for the quick reply. This is the stone i found on ebay. Im in australia and i tried searching for online shops and ebay and there wasnt much at all
Razor Sharpening Stone ORIGNAL ARCANSAS ! | eBay

I am happy to give it a go myself, I like doing these things and am always willing to give things a try. There seems to be tons of instructional vids/guides on the net as well.

you will need to fix the nick on the edge, that means you will need a 1k stone or if you do not mind working the edge longer a 4k stone.
After you are done with the fix and bevel set you need to go to a higher grit say 8k which should give pretty good edge that will shave you well.
So the cheapest way I see you can go is Norton 4/8k if you want to skip the 1k stone.
When using the 4/8k system I would suggest doing the pyramid method described in the Wiki.
Have fun

ludey,

The stone you're considering appears be a hard Arkansas (novaculite) hone. You may be able to work the nick out on it, but probably not; these are very fine, very slow stones. Better you get in touch with some of the other straight razor users in Oz as they may be able to help. This stone is also quite small.

good luck

i agree with Bruce.

You'll not get very good results on repairing a "nick" with a 6-8K grit stone. It is possible that it might work for you as penultimate finisher, but doing the repair and beveling work required of your Dovo will take a lower grit. If you've never honed before, you risk ruining your razor in the process.

At least the stone is from 'Arcansas' and is 'Orignal'.

i've never honed a razor before, but from being on this forum, you'll need a lower grit stone to get the nick out and set the bevel unless you want to slave over that stone for a week. the King 1000 grit stone is a pretty cheap stone that will be more efficient than the 6000 / 8000 grit stone you're looking at.

how big is the nick exactly? could you upload a picture of it?

Originally Posted by ace

At least the stone is from 'Arcansas' and is 'Orignal'.

haha i saw that too. doesn't look too promising.

If you've got a nick then you'll definitely need a 1k stone and maybe even lower than that, such as a Shapton 500 or a DMT 325.

One of the mentors here, Oz, who goes by Onimaru55 on the forums is a skilled honer based in Australia, and he'll be able to hone your blade out.