*Note* This will be a TLDR post! My apologies in advance. Be warned that from here the post is just me rambling on about what happened and how I think I can fix the problem. Thanks in advance to any folks who take the time to share any thoughts . I hope something here might benefit others as well. If anyone sees any flaws in my logic or if I’m totally missing something huge; please call me out! Rushing through my morning routine today my razor hit the concrete floor of my bathroom. I had that sort of electric jolt ride up my spine- like when you stub your toe, before the pain hits. This was surely going to sting when I put eyes on what just happened! Fortunately enough it was stowed inside the cheesy vinyl soft case it arrived with. Except after my last use, I did not roll-fold it in paper as is my custom. Instead I had the blade alone rolled in 2pc of toilet paper. Well, I paid the price for not properly caring for my beloved tools. In this case damage was limited to the toe of the blade. I got lucky. All-in I had myself a nice dent of about 1.5mm radius... not too bad. I am an experienced sharpener and I have a small arsenal of stones at the ready. I’ve fixed countless chips, dents, tips, recurves, etc. on knives. As I have been considering (and very much looking forward to) this repair today, I have settled on a vision for slightly modifying (extending) the toe to leave about 1.5mm unsharpened where the damage occurred. The idea with this is to lose as little material as possible. When this razor was new, the bevel sort of graduated narrower toward the toe, where the final 1.5+mm of edge nearing the curve was almost blunt. I recently (re)set the bevel because I needed better performance out of the razor. After I finished I had a slightly wider and much more crisp bevel, with a cutting edge running to the curve at the toe. I was very pleased with my results and I finally had this blade in proper shaving condition; and now this! I am hoping to get some feedback on my plan. Likely there’s a smarter approach and I’d be grateful for any thoughts. My approach: I will start with a Shapton Glass 2k. If that’s moving too slow I’ll jump back to a Sigma Select 1k and from there down to a 400 if needed. I’ll start grinding the chip at about 60deg w/respect to the Omote side, rolling with the shape of the toe as I go. Once I have the existing chip removed, my new blade shape will be a little awkward, tailing off slightly before the belly of the toe curve. That’s okay I hope. From here I will re-set the bevel, starting way back at 1k. Any significant burr I will keep in check on my 16k SGlass. I don’t want to develop a big burr with potentially fatigued steel near the apex. Progression will be Sigma Select 1k-3k, Nano Hone 6k, SG 16k, Shapton (purple) 30k My concerns: The Shoulder. When I last re-set my bevel, I did not tape the spine. My understanding is that one approach to sharpening a Kamisori is to allow the shoulder to erode with the edge, thusly maintaining geometry and performance. This will be significantly more loss of material and my shoulder is showing maybe 1.75mm of wear as is. Should I be concerned with this? Aesthetically I am happy with the blade showing wear from sharpening. The new blade shape. I will have a bit of a silly looking toe. Will my bevel be affected in future sharpenings in such a way that I will lose continuity of shape through future honing sessions? Repairing the chip at high angle. Will I run into any trouble as I attempt to round the toe by holding the edge nearly perpendicular to the stone? This is how I fix knives. Seems the mode of repair should translate to razors. The burr. If I keep an eye on the burr and knock it off with the SG16k in between stones, then my bevel should naturally stay correct as I lose material. Right? The alternative thought I have is to blunt the edge when I do the initial repair. This might make the process quicker but I do not think the bevel would be “correct” if I did so. Right? I did not think to snap any pics before I left home. I’ll post some pics of the damage when I return tonight. Until then, here’s a few pre-blunder...
I can’t even see the chip, so you lucked out there. I’d worry about the omote spine, the watetsu is beautiful so I'd try to preserve its appearance. I’d tape it with 1 mil Kapton and hone it as usual, biasing the pressure as you like WRT the chip. I think that this approach will pose less risk to the razor and give you more control during the ‘corrective surgery’. I’d at least begin this way to see how fast the chip would come out. You might be glad that you didn’t round the toe after a few licks on the stone. The first rule of razor repair is ‘You can make ‘em smaller, but you can’t make ‘em bigger’. So I’d start with the most razor-friendly manner, then get more aggressive as needed. Once the chip is the way you like it and the bevel is set, then you can pull the tape and re-set the bevel without it if you want. You can always thin the spine afterwards if you think that it’s too thick, the watetsu comes off fast, but if you tape the omote spine, you’ll maybe have more control over the spine width. A few light strokes periodically, flipping the blade each stroke should take any burr off. Side note: The Japanese made a tool for re-cutting the hollow on the omote, it looked like a mini handlebar (just a straight piece of metal) with a blade that also looked like a straight bar, fixed at 90 degrees. It looked like a ‘+’. I’m guessing that the cutting edge was curved. This thing is a scraper, and they scraped the soft iron away. I’m sure that there was further cosmetic work. The existence of such a tool seems to indicate that even folks who were familiar with honing kamisori still wore the hollow out of the omote. Hope this helps and good luck. Let us know how it turns out please!
I’ve also re-shaped worn omote with sandpaper around a drinking water bottle. You just have to find the right bottle, lol. So if you end up with a worn omote, this will work.
Many thanks for your input! These pics are before the chip. It’s pretty obvious though certainly not a “deal breaker” for this little guy. There’s a lot of life left here and it’s a nicely forged piece so I’m excited to get it back in action!
There’s no interference with the bevel at all. I’m now thinking I will do just that! Make a straight line from the edge to the tip. Or maybe I’ll just leave as is and see how it handles in use. No sense in a hasty repair on a functional tool.
A lot of folks mute the tip anyway - and the heel, lol. They don’t call them terror sticks for nothing!
