Thread: Loose Blade

Hello Folks,
Long time shaver, first time member. I have a nice Puma Special 89 that shaves beautifully but the blade is very loose in the scales. If you're holding just the scales the blade can easily swing out. Also because it is loose, if I'm not paying attention, the blade will slouch off-center causing it to his the scales instead of closing inside them. Any suggestions on how to fix this??

Hello, and welcome to SRP! Find a smooth surface to use as an anvil, and a smooth hammer (smaller is better) and lightly tap the rivet head of the pin to tighten it up. Many razors only have one side of the pin riveted (peened over a washer) while the other is basically a nail head often stamped to look like a rivet. Tapping the riveted side will work best. Go easy and be careful not to crack the scales. Very many light taps is what you are striving for here - you only have to move a small amount of metal just a very short distance. This is a pretty common maintenance task with working razors.

Here is a video on how to do this: https://youtu.be/

Here's another https://youtu.be/mmwvf8xLKmk?t=1156

If you're tightening / tapping a lot, certain places where you tap will have influence on how your blades centers
But if it's only for tightening a little bit, just hit it a couple times in the middle and you should be fine

I all the time correct misalignment with the blade and scales by where I hit it on the pin, works every time, just takes some experience getting to know where exactly you gotta hit it

I use two hammers, a regular one as a base for the razor to lie on and a peening hammer to do the tapping

A photo would help - just to make sure that your razor does have peened scales. It's far more likely that they are peened - but if not, none of the advice above will work.

Thanks for the videos and the instructions. This has all been very helpful. I was able to set it so that now it is tighter. Thanks again.

The pin is not exactly the same, but it seemed to help. Is there a better practice?

Not sure about the ? That is the way to tighten a pin. Tc

In other words, are these "peened" scales or something else. I don't really know much in the way of technical terminology.

Your scales are pinned, which means it is a permanent (without cutting/drilling,etc) way to hold the blade in place. If you peened it tight you just did what will become a fairly regular maintainence item with your straights.
Welcome and enjoy the shaves!