Thiers Issard Sharpening Crime!

[onotoman]

One of the guys from Romania sent me a modern Thiers Issard for 'repair' - He said that someone unprofessional had damaged the blade.

Well, the razor arrived and it was indeed 'damaged'!

Whoever had a go at it looked to have tried to sharpen it flat against a sanding disc or against the side of a grinding wheel - this with a high quality razor costing several hundred pounds. The owner thought that it was ruined and was understandably upset.

I should have taken a photo before I sent if back but...

Anyway, the blade nearest the spine had about a 5mm flat on both sides - it looked like a blade that had been honed for many years, but this wasn't, the flat had been caused in one operation!

The bevel was far too wide too.

I did manage (quite easily in fact) to get a good edge on the blade and I buffed the flats as much as possible in order to hide them. They'll always be there along with the 'false' bevel but at least the razor is back to shaving condition now.

The mind boggles with what come people do though.

 

[Steve56]

Maybe you should invite him to the honing forum ...

Cheers, Steve

 

[onotoman]

Hi Steve,

I think whoever did this was more used to sharpening chisels and probably never even held a straight razor prior to the TI.

The owner of the razor sorely regretted trusting it to the would-be sharpener, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Maybe you should invite him to the honing forum ...

Cheers, Steve

 

[rockviper]

One heck of an expensive lesson on differences in "sharpening" services for the owner.

 

[duderdo]

Wow.. Even if whoever sharpened it was used to chisel blades or knives, they should have known better.

 

[onotoman]

Indeed guys.

Not surprisingly the edge was totally unsuitable for shaving.

It actually took me no more than 20 minutes to get a very fine edge on the blade - which is I suppose a credit to the quality of TI blades after such abuse.

 

[DogHair]

It's amazing what people do to their razors. I've had several blades where the previous owner did horrendous things to the blade. Two were fairly expensive customs. One of those was sent back to the maker to be re-ground and the other part of the spine was worn away and still doesn't touch the hone anymore. Makes me wonder what they were thinking.