Thread: Warped Blade?

Fellas,

I recently purchased a Brossard razor off of eBay. Link to original thread is here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/showpost.php?p=981130

My razorsmith looked at it and told me the blade is warped. Pictures are enclosed.

From your pictures the blade seems to be warped. But don't despair, that doesn't mean you can't sharpen it or use it. It just means you must be skilled enough. The oldest razor I have is like that, and I can use it. The only problem is that the consumption along the spine is not uniform: somewhere it is large, somewhere else it's narrow. The same for the bevel.
If you look for perfection of the shape, this razor is not good, but if you look for an old tool that is a living piece of history, it's a nice find. IMHO, of course, but of all the old French STR8S I have, none ever disappointed me.

If the description of the razor claims the blade to be in good shape, in so many words, then I would contact the seller and ask for a refund. If it doesn't say anything about condition or says to ask questions before bidding and you didn't, then it's caveat emptor. If that's the case, maybe you can come to some sort of arrangement with the seller. I wouldn't want a razor with that amount of warpage and would use the refund to purchase a more serviceable razor.

Regards - Walt

I had my razorsmith take another look at it and he thinks that there is another possible explanation. He thinks that spine is uneven. I am going to send it to him.

I have always been curious why the razor manufacturers would allow this kind of thing to occur. But, likely, back then, the razor owners were like so many here, they had hones and simply made the razors work. Where in the present blade world, this kind of thing would have never seen the light of day.

An uneven spine could maybe affect the blade enough to make it warp when it was heat treated. But that looks like a long smooth bend and I could add another couple explanations about grain size changes during heat treatment, but those are pointless now. They only provide suppositions and won't fix the problem.

I had a friend explain to me..if the razor was made vintage..they all have the slightest "lean" to the left..they were hand forged..new razors of today were made in factory's by machine..no lean of any sort..unless defective angle.