Thread: Razor Edge Touched Scales - uh oh?

I'm not sure if this should be here or in the honing thread, so forgive me if this is misplaced.

Last night I finished shaving and closed my razor. The razor centers in its scales totally fine. When I closed my razor last night, however, I don't know if I sort of pressed in on the scales, moved the razor 'over' or what, but the edge of my blade made contact with the scales. The contact seemed to be pretty minimal, there was no gouge taken out of the scales, no noticeable nick in the blade's edge. My question is: will I be able to continue shaving? Should I just touch up the edge on a finishing hone? Am I could to have to essentially start the edge from scratch? Is there anything I can do to assess the level of damage before I put it on a rough stone? I've touched up my razors with a finishing hone multiple times, but I've yet to take on any honing besides final sharpening, so I'd rather avoid it if I can.

Thanks for any help guys.

i would strop and shave and see how it is . maybe yes maybe no only the shave test will show. you could run your fingernail ever so lightly on either bevel and see if you feel a bump .hope this helps

Originally Posted by matthiasbostick

I'm not sure if this should be here or in the honing thread, so forgive me if this is misplaced.

Last night I finished shaving and closed my razor. The razor centers in its scales totally fine. When I closed my razor last night, however, I don't know if I sort of pressed in on the scales, moved the razor 'over' or what, but the edge of my blade made contact with the scales. The contact seemed to be pretty minimal, there was no gouge taken out of the scales, no noticeable nick in the blade's edge. My question is: will I be able to continue shaving? Should I just touch up the edge on a finishing hone? Am I could to have to essentially start the edge from scratch? Is there anything I can do to assess the level of damage before I put it on a rough stone? I've touched up my razors with a finishing hone multiple times, but I've yet to take on any honing besides final sharpening, so I'd rather avoid it if I can.

Thanks for any help guys.

Ideally you'd want to get a loupe to look at the edge just to be sure, but in lieu of that just hold it up to the light and look very carefully for any chips or nicks in the edge. If you're still worried then try shaving a bit of arm or leg hair with the general spot and make sure it's comfortable.

I've done the same thing on a few careless occasions, and did chip my edge once which was visible with the naked eye. The other times everything was okay.

I wouldn't run your fingernail on it, it will dull the blade. Look at the bevel in the light for any irregularities. Also wet your thumbpad and move it along the blade feel for any "bumps".

As cutalot said, strop and shave, if there is nothing wrong when you sahve it's good. Otherwise it will need a rehoning.

If you deformed the edge at all, stropping will tell you. If stropping shows any scratching in the leather, then you did some damage. If it strops normally, then you're probably fine. If the damage was minimal, stropping could fix it.

Here's a quick test that won't scratch your strop, or bugger the blade completely with your nail. It's something Robert Williams wrote & applies here.


"Take a common tissue and fold it in half and hold it so that a long edge sticks out. Without light pressure, draw the edge of the blade along the hanging or extended tissue corner as though you were wanting to cut it. If your razor is very, very sharp, you actually will slice it a bit, but more importantly, look for and feel for any slight stops, skips or twitches of the tissue as you draw the blade across it. If you see or feel any of these, there are still small nicks in the blade and you're feeling and seeing them catch as the razor draws along."

It's lifted directly so I do hope he doesn't mind.

If it seems ok, strop it well & shave.

I like the light test myself. If you don't have a loupe hold the razor in a bright light source focused if you have it and slowly rotate the blade. If there is a problem the imperfection will catch a glint of light and you'll see it. It doesn't take much to deform the edge. Sometimes it's not a real chip but more a deformation or a rolled back piece of the edge.

i think i was not clear on my fingernail test, you are not drawing the edge across your nail but only the bevel. lay the razor flat like you were stroping on your nail and lightly draw it across on both sides of the bevel away from the edge if you have rolled the edge you will feel it .

I hit a plastic deoderant on the counter very lightly once - just enough a make a noise, but not move or rock the doederant. I looked at the edge with a strong light, etc but didn't see anything. It showed up as light scratching on my strop though. Stropping on webbing didn't fix it, a pasted strop didn't fix it (still scratched the strop), using a pasted strop 2 more times still didn't fix it - but a few passes on a 1K stone fixed it up quickly. (You also need a few passes on the 4/8/12 to repolish, but not too many).

ps: The scratches came out of my strop after rubbing it with my palm about 250 passes (ie: several days of pre-shave strop "conditioning")

A lot of interesting tests here. Good info.