Livi New Grind & Strop Damage

[huntmol]

Recently purchased a Livi New Grind from SRD. I was pretty stoked when I received it - gorgeous, like a work of art.

I was looking forward to having my first shave with it, and I went about my normal pre-shave stropping ritual on my Kanayama 60000. 40 strokes on the linen, then I turned the strop over to the leather and started stropping. Business as usual. However, after about 10-15 strokes I noticed something was wrong. There seemed to be small marks appearing at the top and bottom of each stroke. I slowed down, but at the same time I was thinking "Nah, it can't be. Just my imagination." So I continued. 10 strokes later and I thought, "Holy $#@! Every stroke is putting tiny scratches in my strop!"

So here's the deal. The Livi has etchings in the spine. The scratches are only located at the top and bottom of the stropping surface. So it must be those little "X's", right? But they aren't very deep, and they don't feel rough at all to my fingers. I really don't use pressure at all when stropping, I'm at a loss as to why this has happened.

The question is - is this normal? There are many Livis like this out there in the straight shaving world, they can't all be scratching up their owners' strops. Has anyone experienced something similar? Is it just that the Kanayama is a very "sensitive" strop? Is there anything I could do to stop this? I haven't had this razor for too long but I would hate to have to return it, it really is a beauty.

Here are some high-res photos of the damage. Keep in mind that the strop is only a few weeks old, and I haven't experienced anything like this with my other razors. I know that it in no way renders the strop useless, but still. If this happens every single time I strop, what will my poor strop look like in a year?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5204.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5187.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5188.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5193.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5194.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5195.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5196.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5197.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5198.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40321/IMG_5199.JPG

 

[matt321]

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.
I had a similar thing happen on an English Bridle strop with a razor that had a figured back. The strange thing is the same razor doesn't scratch or mark my other strops, just that one.

 

[azmark]

Wow..

I don't have a Livi but have a worked back Ellis and Wacker and do not notice any issues where you would think there is chance of nicks where I roll the razor on its back. Do you think that the engraving may not be smoothed enough and may have slight burs?

It is a nice blade though.

 

[ambrose]

ahh man thats not good, if it were mine I would polish up the spine on my buffer to get rid of the burrs.

 

[professorchaos]

If you get a Livi, you have to watch out for sloppy spine work. On both of mine, it meanders like it was done by someone with intermittent vision problems. Sooooo, in my experience it is entirely possible.

 

[Seraphim]

On some razors the part of the spine honing bevel where it meets the tip of the razor can actually get quite sharp, which can lead to issues like you describe.

 

[huntmol]

Update: Problem solved!!!

Thanks to the brilliance of Ambrose and a gentlemen by the name of janivar123 over at SRP, my strop has been saved from any future damage.

I sat down with some metal polish and a roll of paper towels and polished the spine of that blade like it was my job. A full hour later, I went back to my strop and tested it out - no more scratches! Not a single one. I even went crazy, tried to make a sawing motion with the spine of the razor, and it caused not a single blemish on the surface of that beautiful leather.

 

[BillEllis]

I can't wrap my head around the gouges on top of the spine as being the culprit unless you don't pick up the razor at all during stropping. But the solution is not to send it back over a simple remedy.

Using a rubber jaw vise to hold the tang cutting edge down, take a piece of crocus cloth about an inch wide and 4/5 inches long. Drape it over the spine and lightly buff out the sharp edges using a shoeshine motion. You could also use strips of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. It looks like 400 grit would also match the grind marks in the blade if you don't have 600 grit.

If you discover that the down-home hand etching on the tang is the problem, you can use 400 or 600 grit sandpaper backed by a popcicle stick to "rock" across the convex contour of the tang to take out the high ridges of the lettering.

It's a two-minute fix at the most.

 

[BillEllis]

Update: Problem solved!!!

Thanks to the brilliance of Ambrose and a gentlemen by the name of janivar123 over at SRP, my strop has been saved from any future damage.

I sat down with some metal polish and a roll of paper towels and polished the spine of that blade like it was my job. A full hour later, I went back to my strop and tested it out - no more scratches! Not a single one. I even went crazy, tried to make a sawing motion with the spine of the razor, and it caused not a single blemish on the surface of that beautiful leather.

Looks like my advise was a mite tardy...

 

[LaughingAtFate]

Looks like my advise was a mite tardy...

Still worthwhile though!

 

[huntmol]

Thanks to everyone for their replies!
Fortunately, this story had a happy ending.

 

[Seraphim]

You'll probably want to unload that horribly disfigured Llama strop....


I'm here to help, my brothah!

 

[jkh]

You'll probably want to unload that horribly disfigured Llama strop....

Sloth love Chunk

 

[Loner16]

IMO, for what those razors cost, one should not have to worry about a burr being thrown up from applying the decoration to the spine... But that's just me!

 

[huracan]

I think you just wanted to show off your Livi and and the Kanayama Llama ... Gorgeous, I really like those one piece scales.


MParker had something similar happen with his Hart and Kanayama and he remembered the old Robeson Shuredges with the motto "The Spine That Won't Cut Your Strop"

 

[azmark]

Sloth love Chunk

Baby Ruuuuth.

Man I'm putting that movie on

 

[huntmol]

You'll probably want to unload that horribly disfigured Llama strop....
I'm here to help, my brothah!

I already took the liberty of sending it your way! What? It hasn't arrived yet? Keep checking...

I think you just wanted to show off your Livi and and the Kanayama Llama ... Gorgeous, I really like those one piece scales.

Guilty as charged, who doesn't like a chance to show off their shave gear?

 

[huntmol]

IMO, for what those razors cost, one should not have to worry about a burr being thrown up from applying the decoration to the spine... But that's just me!

+1

Actually this is the first thing I thought of when this happened.

I mean ***, you spend $300 on a razor and there's not even a cursory attempt to remove the burr from the metal after an etching?

 

[choppin]

nice razor