Thread: Wear and tear on a razor

After seeing a thread today about a certain wade & butcher, it got me thinking. Obviously, that was an abused or at least, a heavily used blade, but what is exactly acceptable hone wear? What is too far gone? I have to ask your professional opinions on a razor I picked up happily for $5, my J A Henckels 'cut well' 'square' point hollow ground.


This is what it looked like when I got it. It has since seen three rounds of autosol and is pretty much gleaming. I know that the point or 'toe' is now smiling prominently, but what do you guys think of this blade?

If it can be properly honed and the edge maintained through stropping, I think the only question is "How does it shave?" It looks fine to me. I have some slightly worn blades in my rotation and they're good enough for me. Just my opinion and it's far from professional.

It is always nice to have a couple warhorses in the stable..... I don't look so good either, but people keep me around for the entertainmaint... Warhorses have a lot of stories..

I've only shaved with it once and it was pretty good. It has a pretty even and prominent bevel already, I think the person who sold it either honed it up or got it off a dead guy who maintained it properly

As noted above, if the razor can be honed and gives a good shave it's fine. In the pictured razor I see that the hone wear just under the spine is a bit wide which is a sign of a lot of honing. Also, the bevel is going into the stabilizer which may cause honing issues. These are signs I use for gauging over honing. Some may say that the curve up at the toe is over honing in that area but I believe it may be a mod to reduce cuts from the square tip while still having one.

Or a chip repair.

This is one area faced when dealing with vintage blades. Not all razors where honed properly Some people had some pretty wild ideas on how to hone a razor, but heck it worked for them 150 years later we see a blade and think "OMG what happened here?" or "How the heck do I fix that?". It's one of the things I like about vintage over new, it keeps you on your toes. I like the challenge of trying to figure out just how that razor was worn down in that way. Once I figure out what happened I have a good idea how to fix the percieved damage and get it honed up in my own twisted way

While that are only a few schools of though in honing, there is endless veriety of interpritation on those techniques. One must experience many ways to really learn how to make it work best for them selves, one great reason to follow the forum topics on honing and give each one a try and it's fun

Yeah I see that extra wear on the stabilizer too... I try my best to pick up barely used blades, this is by far my worst blade yet in terms of wear, but it was only $5 can't go wrong for that price . Is there any way to repair the damage?

@dwarvenchef;
I know what you mean, unfortunately I've not been able to acquire any hones but a couple barber stones, one of which is broken 70/30. The more I've read about honeing the more I'm kind of afraid of it. It seems kind of complex to me and I just don't want to bugger anything I have

i have not heard of a safe way to replenish the steel. so you are just going to have to polish that some, hone and use it ... it will probably be your best razor ... the ugly ones are... sort of like how your ugly kid is your favorite... somebody has to love it.

"somebody has to love it" ahaha that made my morning thank you. I will hone it up soon on my barber stone. Unfortunately I have to do another test shave of my brother in laws magnetic razor, I'm putting together a little straight shaving kit as a surprise for him. I resurfaced an old strop and got him an old Biedermeier