Thread: Really messed up my razor

The other day when I was shaving, as I was rinsing off the razor in the sink my hand jerked and the edge swiped along the faucet. I knew imedietly that this was no good and when I went back to shave it no longer cut hair.

I took out my swaty barbers hone and did about 20 laps and still nothing, so I took out my safety razor and finished my shave, since I had places to be.

Since I had time today I decided to really try honing the razor on my swaty and after what must've been 100-120 laps it was just barely able to shave, and I'm using the term shave loosely. It felt like the hairs were being ripped off my face. Also the top part of my razor is completely useless now and still won't cut hair.

I'm afraid to do more laps on my swaty, do you guys think the razor is saveable? Or is it trash?

Thanks for the help
Matt

I am going under the presumption that your razor was a quality razor, and in such case it is well worth your while to send it out for a professional honing. That many passes on a swaty is unlikely going to get you a good shave. The swaty is for when nothing bad has happened to your blade and you are just using it as part of maintenance. There are many guys that hone, some of them advertise in the classifieds under member services. Until you have shaving down pat it is not the wisest of plans to try to learn to hone at the same time, and it is never necessary to learn to hone. There are several members that never do. Of course a picture would give a better idea of what you are up against, but likely it can be honed out.

Yeah a close up picture would help us see the damage your talking about. What you have done on the Swaty maybe why it's not shaving.
If your trying to fix a ding it should only take about 160 hours with a swaty :<0)

120 strokes on a Swaty,,,, God Bless

Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Library

Originally Posted by Hirlau

120 strokes on a Swaty,,,, God Bless

Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Library

+1 ...

I only jest, but.........

You're not the first person on the forum to hit the faucet with their razor. My advice would be to visit the hobbyist section of the forum. Send it out to one of the members who specializes in honing razors to a "Shave Ready Condition".

Originally Posted by mattmaybloom

The other day when I was shaving, as I was rinsing off the razor in the sink my hand jerked and the edge swiped along the faucet. I knew imedietly that this was no good and when I went back to shave it no longer cut hair.

I took out my swaty barbers hone and did about 20 laps and still nothing, so I took out my safety razor and finished my shave, since I had places to be.

Since I had time today I decided to really try honing the razor on my swaty and after what must've been 100-120 laps it was just barely able to shave, and I'm using the term shave loosely. It felt like the hairs were being ripped off my face. Also the top part of my razor is completely useless now and still won't cut hair.

I'm afraid to do more laps on my swaty, do you guys think the razor is saveable? Or is it trash?

Thanks for the help
Matt

It's likely repairable so long as you don't have a chip in the edge. And don't get discouraged. This is more common than you would think as is severely cut strops, rusted blades and even scars.

I destroyed my first strop- put so many nicks in it I couldn't restore it to usuable condition.

Do post some photos of the razor as close up on the edge as possible.
Then get some magnification and look at the edge. In the future do not do anything until you know how bad the damage is.
Just jumping in and honing is never a good thing. At the least you are just wearing the spine needlessly.
You can purchase a 60X lighted loupe for 2-3 dollars on line. Once you know the level of damage you can decide how you want to repair it.
Sending it out is probably your best bet. And then you can learn to shave and maintain your razor with the barber hone.
A goose neck faucet for about 100-150 dollars will get the faucet well out of the danger zone and prevent this from happening again, as said this is a very common problem.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

A goose neck faucet for about 100-150 dollars will get the faucet well out of the danger zone and prevent this from happening again, as said this is a very common problem.

Alternatively, never put the razor near the sink at all. There is no need to do so anyway. Instead of dipping your blade in water or running it under a water stream, you simply can wipe the blade off with a dry wash cloth. That way your blade is never at risk.

Regarding the blade's repair, a Swaty CAN be used to set a bevel and then make a razor sharp. The obvious caveat is that you have to know what you are doing with it. If you do not fall into this category, then it would be best to send it to someone with more hones and more experience to fix it.

It CAN get sorted out if you get help with it.