Thread: can you fix a bent blade?

So, I recently picked up an ebay special, and my surprise, the seller through another razor in the box.

I immediately fell in love with the freebie razor. There's just something about the design that really appeals to me, so I set about cleaning it up. No rust, no pitting, but the blade was nearly black.

I removed the scales and cleaned the blade up to a 'basic' level with my dremel. Along the way, I noticed two issues with the blade. Both of these are small enough that I couldn't get a picture that showed them.

1. about 1/4 of the way out from the heal, the edge was folded hard enough to have created a slight ripple on the face of the blade. I've already rubbed this out 90% with a simple wood block, and gotten it down to where setting a enw bevel will get rid of it.

2. The other issue I've encountered is that the blade is ever so slightly warped. When I lay the blade flat on a known flat surface, and hold it down by the tow or heel, the other end is raised off the surface by a small amount. .5mm or less. If I flip the blade over, both ends rest on the flat block, and the middle is raised by a small fraction of a mm.

What I'm wondering is if this is something that can be fixed, and if it can't be fixed, can I hone and use the razor anyway, or should I just let this one go since it was a freebie anyway?

You could possibly hone it section by section on a really narrow hone
or live with a funny bevel like on this poor old Wosti here.

If it is warped in such a was that the middle of the edge does not contact a flat surface then I don't think it could be honed. However if it is warped in such a way that the edge is twisted then that can be honed and used.

You now have a razor that you rather like, except that is slightly warped.

I offer two possible solutions for this. The first is to find a narrow honing stone so that the slight warp of the blade will not really affect the contact so very much. Do note that when I use the word 'narrow' I am thinking of a stone no wider that one-half the width of the razor. In fact, the first technique can be done using small hand stones, but, unfortunately, most users do not have small sections of coticle lying about. A second alternative technique is to do the sharpening along the long corner-edge of a regular hone, holding the razor at an angle to the stone. By means of this technique you have what is essentially a single-point contact between razor and hone, so that the warp of the blade if of no consequence whatsoever. That second technique calls for a bit more attention on the sharpener's part as he must maintain a constant angle relationship between razor and stone without the benefit of being able to reference on a flat, but nevertheless it is not so difficult that a person of average dexterity cannot do it.

Once you have brought a proper edge back in place, the stropping should be no problem as the leather surface should conform just enough to accept that little bit of warp.

Try it. And good luck!

Of course you can...
If I could do it, anyone can do it...

Similar topic was discussed here...

When I laid my razor on flat surface, I had an air gap between both heel and toe about 0,5 mm high...

If I understand what you mean by ripple:

sighting down the edge you see that it doglegs to the left or right rather than appearing as a straight line. This you believe was caused by closing against the scale(folded you said). Is that right?

or it is like a real ripple beginning at the edge; traveling toward the spine um like a ripple in water

Clarifying that may lend clues as to the true condition of your razor. But probably not.

The main thing is you moved it. Could be because there is no heat treatment on a real cheap razor.. or not.

I've been wanting to discuss straightening straights but i have to run atm

Just for reference sake:

Many, many, blades out there have slight warps in them, very few sit perfectly on a flat surface, the older the razor the more variance from perfect you tend to find....
You also do not have to use a narrow hone to sharpen a warped blade, it tends to be easier to set a bevel that way, but if you have the talent you can hone any razor on any hone.... So you don't have to go cutting hones or searching for narrow ones

These were made mostly by hand not on CNC machines.... each razor is unique......

plus one for what Glen said. Of my 9 or so razors that I've honed and shave with maybe 2 sit nicely on the hone. Most have some sort of minor warping.

Do a forum search for "rolling x-stroke" that is what you will need to use to hone a warped blade on a "normal" sized hone.

Originally Posted by kevint

Clarifying that may lend clues as to the true condition of your razor. But probably not.

Well the first thing I'll clarify, is that I have my own side business as a professional photographer, and I have some fairly expensive equipment for doing macro work, and I couldn't get a good picture of what I'm talking about.


We're talking minor stuff here. But, I'm new to all this and I don't know how minor something needs to be.

To clarify the "ripple" after having read around some more, I believe it's more along the lines of what people would describe as a rolled edge, but only 3~4mm of edge is rolled. In a VERY confined area, right where the edge is rolled, the blade is very slightly concave on one side, and very slightly convex on the other. I can't impress upon you how slight this is. I wasn't able to detect it until the blade was nearly polished, and the only way to get a good look at it is to hold it 'just right' so that you can see the reflection of a light source, which is distorted in that area.

The main concern is the warp. The blade is warped latterally. Laid on one side, the blade touches the table in the center with both ends slightly raised. Laid on the other side, the blade touches at both ends, but is raised in the middle. Again, we're talking about a fraction of a mm.


I think Glen is right and I should be able to hone the edge, even if it results in a bevel that looks uneven.

However, I'm still interested in trying just about anything to straighten the razor. This was a complete freebie. I didn't pay for it, I didn't ask for it, I was surprised when I opened the box and saw it. I like the design enough to try, but I have so little invested I'm not going to cry myself to sleep if I wreck it.

So, I'm willing to experiment. It's a half hollow (or so I would estimate) so there's a lot of metal to work with.

Also, I've got a nice Henkels for a daily shaver, and a DE for a back-up, and a mach3 for a backup-backup. So, I really have nothing to loose here. Anybody has a theory on straightening out a warped blade, I'd love to hear it. (I understand that tempered metals don't straighten well)

I lucked out; none but #15 of 14 have any bevel or warp issues. The bevels are not always perfectly even, but trouble free.

VDub it sounds like a chip that didn't happen? The deflection was in the bevel, and you were able to push it back partly. that's pretty cool as long as its due to thinness and not softness-sorry to keep mentioning that.

My first and worst razor has a spine that is thickest in the center 1/3. it has odd grind marks that looks like it has had some fixin done to it.

with a caliper or micrometer or eyeball you should check that its not double tapered in any way(one sided for instance) along the spine.

because obviously you cant bend that out but could show on the bevel as a warp.

I agree most are simply honed around easily enough once you learn how

...The question remains though, can you bend out a warp, or push out a cupped edge?
Let's see if anyone does it?