Ouch! (sad pic inside)

I got a razor off ebay a few weeks back.
The first shave I had off it wasn't "that" great. It was okay, but it definitely needed a good honing session. So I spent the past few days giving it just that, careful and methodical honing and it was making the difference.

I have a few patches on my arm where I was testing, and it was definitely approaching the level of sharpness I was expecting.

I gave it a quick strop today, and I was just setting about giving it a polish before I was going to have another go at shaving with it. I was sat on my front step enjoying the weather, giving it a quick once over with a polishing thingy on the dremel. It was coming up beautifully, shining brightly in the sunshine when I slipped...and this happened:



Colour me heartbroken.
I've spent some time caring for this fella, and we'd gotten quite close.
I'm thinking I'll gring out the fracture into a stupid curve as best as possible, but I don't think I have the skill for a full on regrind.

It was/is a 7/8" a re-grind I'm guessing will make it a 5/8" at best.

At this point, I'm in need of advice.

I checked for fractures beyond the chip, there's no hairlines or anything. At least nothing visible to the naked eye.

I'll be more than happy to post pics, if when I can get it back to health.

I'm thinking that if I took a straight line back from the crest of the chip that would be the easiest. Alternatively, I'm thinking that losing the scales and taking a line back would give it that Japanese blade style.

Like I say, I'm open to suggestions.

Edit: I edited out the bad language in my original post. My apologies, I pasted my post from another forum.

Sound like you were lucky to only damage the blade and not yourself.

Were you hand holding the blade and using the dremel?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by url

I checked for fractures beyond the chip, there's no hairlines or anything. At least nothing visible to the naked eye.

I'll be more than happy to post pics, if when I can get it back to health.

I'm thinking that if I took a straight line back from the crest of the chip that would be the easiest. Alternatively, I'm thinking that losing the scales and taking a line back would give it that Japanese blade style.

Like I say, I'm open to suggestions.

Edit: I edited out the bad language in my original post. My apologies, I pasted my post from another forum.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

Sound like you were lucky to only damage the blade and not yourself.

Were you hand holding the blade and using the dremel?

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Yep.

The worst thing is, I have a proper vice too.
I bought the vice specifically because I know that holding stuff in one hand and power-tooling with the other is a recipie for disaster.

I thought, I'd give the blade a quick once over with some polishing compound, so I neglected the vice since it'd only take a minute or two.

You know how it is though. A couple of minutes in, and you're seeing good results, so you think you'll carry on. You ignore the obvious heat being generated by the polishing and then, *tink*, you remember that blades are notoriously brittle, even more so when hot.

:(

We live and learn I guess.

Ouch! I had a couple ideas you might consider. First, you could just round it out and have a notch. It would be kind of weird, so idea number 2: smooth it out and remove only as high as you have to, and all the way back to the heel. If there was a chance of a regrind, you'd still have all the material needed, yet you could still shave with it. It might be better used as a precision razor by then though :D

That's just my armchair thoughts though. Someone with more creativity will probably drop in soon.

Hahaha!

I'm glad I posted here. Yeah, it's a tragedy, but I got a laugh out of "precision razor". Thanks for that.

I'm speaking to the guy I bought my honing stone from. I've seen some of his razors while I was researching to buy mine, and I was always impressed by the quality. of his work.

I would have gotten one from him before, but, I took a real fancy to the one I have. (Don't we always hurt the one's we love the most ;))

Taking it straight back to the heel would be the simplest I think, but yeah, it would look a bit funky. He's given me an idea that is a little more elegant, but, I don't want to post here without him having had a chance to look at the thread first.

Again, thanks for the ideas/sympathy/laughs.

I know it's too late this time, but you should always specifically think about the direction of rotation before turning on your dremel and always have the disk rotating from spine to edge. Failing to do this leads to, well, your razor.
Sorry for your loss. That's a really nice spine.
Since I don't have a Bader, I fix blades like that on a 90 rpm wet grinder. Problem is that when you grind up so far into the blade you've essentially converted it into a narrow wedge and they can be hard to get honed up properly.
It's worth a shot though!

Yep, that's pretty much what happend, I was polishing the sides, slipped and the buffer thing caught the edge. But yeah, it was the fancy spine I liked.

Hindsight is always 20:20.

I don't have a proper grinding stone. I "could" take it to my father in laws, he has one. But, I think I'd be better off passing the torch to someone more experienced in this case.

Yep. Once I was over the initial shock, I was aware that I had both eyes and kinda relieved. I still haven't found where the chip landed.

I was just reading the rest of this sub forum and I'm seeing a lot of people wanting to dremel polish/buff etc.

My experience now tells me:

Vice
Ice

To be honest, I don't think I'd use a Dremel again. At the lowest RPM I've just trashed a perfectly good blade. The polishing tip (compressed felt type) caught the sharp edge and it was all over - no blinking time or anything.

Maybe a sewn cloth type might have fared better, but, I'm thinking that a thread or group of threads could just as easily catch and deliver the same result.

For work away from the edge maybe it's okay.

I should say what you see is visual damage. The real damage is invisible. It happen when you start to put hallow blade under the DREMEL WHICH WAS rotated in high speed.
At least this is not end of the world and we all learn and you did learn hard way.Please next time DON'T TOUCH HALLOW BLADE WITH DREMEL.
hope this helps.(you can use very slow speed ones)

Where do I send the flowers?:cry:

I made these videos like 6 weeks ago and I told myself I wouldnt post this on SRP... because I don't like the sound of my voice and I babbled a lot on the first part of the video, but...ehh..what the hell.

Heres the method I use to "Remove a chip"


Part 1: YouTube - Removing a chip from a straight razor, Part 1

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnocPdAvfzg

Flowers go to Paul in Denmark.

:D

I'm just watching those videos now. Thanks for those, I think I may give it a go using your technique. It was suggested to breadknife it, but, I think I prefer your method.

When I was told to breadknife it, I thought the guy meant to make the tail end of the blade (behind the chip) serated like a bread knife :p

I'm learning alot today.

Again, thanks for the tips. They're all appreciated.

edit: some part of me knew that if I was going to get back into this, I should start with a balde I could afford to ruin. Again, 20:20 in hindsight.

A bit of personal history for those interested. I got into using straight razors at university when a friend of mine from Taiwan gave me a set of 10 disposable straight razors from japan. Apparently women there use them to do their legs.

I'd been interested in using a straight razor ever since I was a kid and I saw Sweeny Todd.

It's not the greatest job in the world, and I need to spend some time getting an edge again, but, I don't have to spend money getting a new one immediately.

I do have an excuse for a new one though, so there's always an upside.

Well done. were my vids helpful?

I used your technique, so yeah very helpful!
Thanks for those, and more importantly thanks for posting them where I needed them :D

My only issue is that I haven't managed to keep the edge parallel to the spine.
I did try to keep the pressure even, but, being the first time I've had to do this I obviously need more practice.

At the end of the day, I'm treating this as a learning experience.
It's a shame to learn on such a blade, but c'est la vie.

Wow good video and very good help for every one thank you.:tu

Since it looks like the toe is wider than the heel, if it were me I would consider putting a slight smile in it. Dunno If you have enough steel though. Like this:

Yeah, I think a 'smile' is necessary.
For the moment, I've taken a day offto cool off and re-approach with a cool head. Also, following my mishap I figured I needed to get a replacement.
Obviously I can still use the one I have, but two of anything is always better than one right (excluding tumors/blood clots and other bad things).

So yeah, off i went to eBay and looky what I found...
http://thumbnails7.imagebam.com/4468/54ae4144677448.gif http://thumbnails16.imagebam.com/446...0544677450.gif

http://thumbnails17.imagebam.com/446...ae44677453.gif http://thumbnails2.imagebam.com/4468/2610a744677455.gif

http://thumbnails6.imagebam.com/4468/77455a44677462.gif

http://thumbnails6.imagebam.com/4468/42425244677465.gif http://thumbnails14.imagebam.com/446...8b44677468.gif

It only needs a tiny amount of work. A good honing session, and re-pinning.
To be honest I could hone & re-pin it myself, but I'm hoping the guy I send it to can really bring it out of it's shell.

I'm well impressed with it.

wow! Link to the auction?

I know it "looks the part" and it certainly looks fine in my eyes, but, bear in mind, it is completely unbranded.

the original auction link is:
linky