Yesterday I posted a thread about chipping one of my favorite razors. Well I must be on a roll because today I ruined yet another razor.

I’m an amateur (read: crappy newbie) razor restorer and I got careless this morning at the buffing wheel and accidently ground away a good portion of the blade (see picture).

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I don’t think the razor can be fixed without spending an eternity on the hones, right? Let that be a lesson for those thinking of trying to restore razors: the greaseless compound (even the 600 grit) will grind off more metal than you might think! Be especially careful when working around the delicate edge.

I try to grind perpendicular to the edge (i.e. from spine to edge) but I might try grinding lengthwise (i.e. from heel to toe or vice versa) to minimize such mishaps until my proficiency improves. The only razors I’ve tried buffing with greaseless compound in the past were wedges, whose thicker stock is apparently more forgiving of rookie mistakes (lesson #2 for newbies: maybe trying a wedge in the beginning is best??)

Given life’s demands, the only time I get to “play” with my razors is early in the morning before anyone else in the house gets up. Perhaps the caffeine hadn’t fully hit my system yet causing me to lose focus. Let that be lesson #3: don’t play with power tools and sharp objects in the wee hours of the morning!

The good news is that the razor I was working on was a cheap POS flea market find that I purchased to practice on – so no major loss.

PS: Hats off to you professional restorers – restoring razors is far far harder (and time consuming too) than all the YouTube videos seem to make it out to be.