Thread: fixing a bent edge

okay so i have a razor thats been dropped on the heel edge and bent over. Didn't crack or chip the blade. It's quite significant and affects honing considerably. I don't want to grind it off as it would ruin the look of the razor (i'm shallow what can i say) Anyone know how to go about trying to fix it? I read something about stropping on a hard, smooth, non-abrasive surface (maybe a piece of glass?) to slowly bend the edge back to normal. Has anyone ever tried lightly pounding a folded edge straight? Would heating it (after all, hot steel is more mallable) make it straighten easier or would i just increase the chances of cracking/breaking it off? Thanks for any advice you guys can offer. I'm at a loss for ideas

If you heat it to the point it'll bend without breaking, you're going to burn the temper right out of it, making it worse than useless.

thats not a welcoming thought...

is slowly and slightly shaping it back to a straight position still in the equation?

Not a razor repair guru, but I’ll offer $0.02 I’ve gleaned from a basic metallurgy class UC made me take…

Joe Chandler is absolutely right; heating it will destroy the temper.

Every time you permanently bend a piece of cold metal, it becomes harder. Unfortunately, this also means more brittle. And straight razors are brittle enough as it is. Bending with piers, vice, etc., is probably out; it would probably snap. Pounding would almost certainly break it; any taps gentle enough not to would probably fail to provide enough deformation to permanently change the blade.

Despite the brittleness and rigidity of straight razor, there is still an elastic range in the steel. As long as the bending is within that range, the permanent effect will be next to nothing. The stropping method will probably fall within this range. The Catch-22, as I have been implying, is when you exceed that range, due to the hardness/brittleness of the steel, you will have a very narrow range to work with before the steel fails.

Just my $0.02, not an expert. These are the things that I would worry about. Hopefully someone with more practical experience will come along and correct my musings with something more cheerful.

-Michael

I wonder if it was hard to begin with. If it bent the first time without breaking it may not have been hard enough.

Pix would help. How much angle is on the bend? If it's folded completely over, I'm back to my first concern, it wasn't hard. If it's a shallow angle, then the blade may be in the spring hard range, but not the very hard brittle range and you could possibly maybe, very judiciously, tap it back to straight.

Michael is correct though. "Working" the material too much will increase the local hardness and it could fail at that point anyway.

The other option is to send it to a smith/grinder who knows their heat treatment and have them straighten it. First anneal, straighten and heat treat correctly etc.