The Hunt.....

camoloc · Apr 25, 2020

when looking at or considering used razors for purchase, there are a couple of things I'd like to be able to spot or avoid:

(1) how do you evaluate excessive hone wear......and what does it look like???

(2) sometimes you will see some nicks on a blade......at what point are these a lost cause or unrecoverable?????

thanks for any thoughts and illustrations on this.

camo

rbscebu · Apr 25, 2020

It will be interesting to see the replies that you get. I won't chime in with my opinions at present. First I would like to read what others have to say.

Tomo · Apr 25, 2020

My preference is for new razors. I find imperfections much easier to accept if I put them there myself. I’m also really anal about looking after my things. Second hand is ok if little used, vintage is a crap shoot.

Aldwyn · Apr 25, 2020

Here is an EBay example of some seriously bad hone wear, thanks to really bad honing.

Note how the spine and bevel both change drastically from heal to toe. The spine is almost flat at the toe. The bevel at the toe is actually pointing upward thanks to the bad honing.

Now, if I saw a spine that was flattening all the way across the spine, much like the toe's spine is in the picture above, I would avoid that too. There are far too many good razors out there to drop coin on such a blade. Unless you are looking for that challenge, I suppose.

Chip wise, I usually dont buy anything if it has anything larger then micro chips. I did buy a razor once with a nice chip on the edge thinking I could get it out... and I did with hours on a diamond plate... but so much steel has to be removed, it really wasn't worth the effort.

YMMV, of course, but these are guidelines I go by when I am shopping.

seattleshaver · Apr 26, 2020

There's plenty of vintage blades in good condition. Buy those.

DrStrange · Apr 26, 2020

camoloc said:
when looking at or considering used razors for purchase, there are a couple of things I'd like to be able to spot or avoid:

(1) how do you evaluate excessive hone wear......and what does it look like???

(2) sometimes you will see some nicks on a blade......at what point are these a lost cause or unrecoverable?????

thanks for any thoughts and illustrations on this.

camo

Small nicks can be good in a way.
Sometimes a small nick happens to a brand new razor
and then the razor just sits forever until it finds ebay, for cheap.
I have two razors, a Red Injun 102 and a Heljestrand,
where by the time I ground out those nicks, the razors were
still in better shape than most used razors.

steveclarkus · Apr 27, 2020

camoloc said:
when looking at or considering used razors for purchase, there are a couple of things I'd like to be able to spot or avoid:

(1) how do you evaluate excessive hone wear......and what does it look like???

(2) sometimes you will see some nicks on a blade......at what point are these a lost cause or unrecoverable?????

thanks for any thoughts and illustrations on this.

camo

Some home wear is to be expected as the razor is designed for the spine and edge to wear at the same rate in order to maintain the same bevel angles. Excessive hone wear should be obvious in a decent photo. As far as chipped edges go, I avoid them. I prefer smaller blades, 9/16 and 4/8 and they are less expensive than larger blades but are excellent shavers.

rbscebu · Apr 27, 2020

For me there is no such thing as "excessive" hone wear. There are however blades that have been poorly honed - showing more or less hone wear. Some may be beyond acceptable repair. Quite often the edge profile will give you an indication of the honing quality.

As for edge chips, most can be repaired. It just depends on how much effort you want to put into it. I have repaired a 2mm edge chip. First I had to bread-knife the whole edge back about 2mm, leaving me with a 180deg bevel angle. Then I had to start again preparing a new edge. Not easy and took a lot of time and effort. I ended up with a fine SR.

DrStrange · May 10, 2020

DrStrange said:
Small nicks can be good in a way.
Sometimes a small nick happens to a brand new razor
and then the razor just sits forever until it finds ebay, for cheap.
I have two razors, a Red Injun 102 and a Heljestrand,
where by the time I ground out those nicks, the razors were
still in better shape than most used razors.

Here's the before and after of the Heljestrand: