Thread: A lost cause?

I was given this Le Grelot 5/8 last night, my initial excitement was dimmed somewhat when I opened the razor and found this


My question is can she be saved? There is quite a chunk bitten out of the edge toward the heel, and some nasty little flea bites at the toe, the scales are in good condition though. Is the damage too much to bread knife away? Is it worth even trying to restore this old girl?
Expert opinions would be very welcome!

ATB

John

All it needs is honing, and quite a bit of it. I'd start at 220 and move to 1K and up from there.

Breadknifing will just make the job more difficult and take longer.

The only good reason to breadknife a razor is if you really want a breadknife instead.

I hate wasting razors so I would definitely fix it up. Before you put too much work into it though, have a good close look at those chips and make sure there's no cracks running from them.
Grant

Originally Posted by osdset

There is quite a chunk bitten out of the edge toward the heel, and some nasty little flea bites at the toe, -John

John,

i imagine once honing through the "chunk", the "flea bites" issue will no longer be an issue. looks good to go for me.

It looks like you will not quite be into the stabilizer, so I think you will be o.k. If the rust does not get into the new bevel.

Removing a chip from a straight razor, Part 1 - YouTube

Removing a chip from a straight razor, Part 2 - YouTube

Thanks for all the advice gentlemen, I like the removing a chip vids posted by Slartibartfast I have an abundance of wet 'n' dry and decided this was the way to go, the damage was rubbed away in about 5 mins, I did a rough bevel set on my finest grit diamond plate then took it to my Jnat which I cannot for the life of me remember what grit size it is I know it's finer than 1k, about three hours later and after some light sanding which put paid to most of the gold wash, I was left with this


The bevel seems a bit on the big side to me but I am guessing that the reason is that as I have reduced the width of the razor by about 2mm the angle has changed, the good news is the chips are history, and the bevel is pretty much set. I reckon I will need to re-shape the toe and heel areas a bit but other than that the patient has made a half decent recovery and can now look forward to some final honing and loads of spit and polish