You know what sucks.

[SliceOfLife]

Honing a razor to an amazing edge, through a tedious, careful, exacting honing process. Delicately stropping it 30 cloth, 60 leather. Testing it and finding in amazingly sharp... then looking at it under the scope and noticing that a couple spots of pitting have left gaps right on that beautifully polished edge and you now have to remove a mm or two of bevel and start from scratch.

That sucks.

Stupid W&B I got in a box I bought (for the box), got all excited to shave with it tonight and was about to go shave, checked it under the scope, and of course, just had to be some edge pitting I hadn't noticed.

 

[Blackstangal]

**** happens! Apart of the straight razor world,and we all love it!!!

Honing a razor to an amazing edge, through a tedious, careful, exacting honing process. Delicately stropping it 30 cloth, 60 leather. Testing it and finding in amazingly sharp... then looking at it under the scope and noticing that a couple spots of pitting have left gaps right on that beautifully polished edge and you now have to remove a mm or two of bevel and start from scratch.

That sucks.

Stupid W&B I got in a box I bought (for the box), got all excited to shave with it tonight and was about to go shave, checked it under the scope, and of course, just had to be some edge pitting I hadn't noticed.

 

[jendeindustries]

I'd shave with it anyway, then go do it again - it's just another excuse to hone, and shave in my book!

 

[mparker762]

Honing a razor to an amazing edge, through a tedious, careful, exacting honing process. Delicately stropping it 30 cloth, 60 leather. Testing it and finding in amazingly sharp... then looking at it under the scope and noticing that a couple spots of pitting have left gaps right on that beautifully polished edge and you now have to remove a mm or two of bevel and start from scratch.

How does it shave? If it shaves fine, and the razor is one of yours, then it's no big deal.

 

[Ray-man]

I can' believe that anyone would recommend that you shave with this razor. This is a common problem honemeisters come across all the time. If you can't make yourself do it right, then send it to someone who can!

Never settle for second best.

Ray

 

[mparker762]

I can' believe that anyone would recommend that you shave with this razor. This is a common problem honemeisters come across all the time. If you can't make yourself do it right, then send it to someone who can!

Spoken like someone who sells the very honing services he recommends.

Reread the OP's post. The "nicks" only showed up under a microscope, and there were only a few (OP said "couple"). It's quite likely that a small number of microscopic chips will not materially affect the shave. If somebody is paying for the edge then he should get rid of them, but for a razor he'll be using himself, and assuming it shaves fine, there's really not much point to the exercise. With a bit of use the razor will develop chips like that naturally just from the stress of shaving and stropping, long before the razor becomes dull enough to actually warrant it. If you rehoned the razor every time this happened you would wear out the razor in only a few years. The chips will come out soon enough with use and a few more touch-up honings.

 

[SliceOfLife]

I've never actually shaved with a microchipped razor. I just assumed it would be a bad idea.

I don't know. I may give it a shot to see if it works alright. But I'll probably just set the razor aside until I have the time to grind the bevel back and get a spotless one.

 

[heirkb]

Yea I have a Henckels 7-8/8 carbon blade with the same problem. Except the small areas of pitting are actually quite large under the microscope so there are quite a few holes in the bevel...
It's a shame cause you don't usually get carbon steel Henckels blades that big...