Thread: Dropped open SR, how bad is it? (I'm not very smart)

Originally Posted by RayClem

Your are lucky in that you did not ruin the razor and your only injury was a bruised ego.

I agree with RezDog that the biggest problem with the razor is the heel. Whoever honed the razor never got the bevel set properly at the heel. It looks like the shoulder of the blade might need to be ground down a little to allow the blade to lay flat on the hones from heel to toe. A similar modification has to be made to Gold Dollar razors to allow them to be honed. Another modification that could also be done is to round off the edge of the blade at the heel so it no longer needs to be honed. That is another modification some people make on Gold Dollars. Although Dremel tools are often used to grind down the shoulder, they are too hard to control to round the edge. I learned that the hard way.

Since you are new, I would recommend you send your razor to someone who is familiar with honing less than perfect razors and let them fix it properly. They may charge more than their usual honing fee since some extra work will be required, but then they may not.


If this were my own razor, I would make the repairs myself; but I would not feel comfortable working on a razor for someone else. There are a number of people on the forum that do have the required experience. Hopefully, one of them will step up.

Thanks for the information, really appreciate any information I can pick up. On reddit, a user who goes by Roctraitor (Sam) is regarded as the go-to honemeister. Has this forum heard of him? Who would you recommend? I would like to send it out to someone who can do it right but also don't want to pay more than what I bought the razor for, $88. Also, what is a great site for buying shave ready razors, is straight razor designs still the go-to?

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Yes SRD is the go to. But you may find one in the Buy/Sell/Trade area here on the forum.
Link is at the top of every page

Sorry to hear you dropped the razor. Most of us have either dropped a razor or dinged a razor.
I also agree the heel is the more serious issue. I would highly recommend you send the razor back to Brad for honing. He will send it back to you for round two. : )

Originally Posted by lz6

Sorry to hear you dropped the razor. Most of us have either dropped a razor or dinged a razor.
I also agree the heel is the more serious issue. I would highly recommend you send the razor back to Brad for honing. He will send it back to you for round two. : )

Yeah I believe everything was perfectly fine before the drop. I have some before pictures and I don't see the issue with the heel

Before https://imgur.com/gallery/Ybnxm

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Originally Posted by SRnoob

Yeah I believe everything was perfectly fine before the drop. I have some before pictures and I don't see the issue with the heel

Before https://imgur.com/gallery/Ybnxm

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I looked at the photo of the razor before the drop and the heel looks much better. The razor must have landed on the heel. Extra hollow ground razors, while they can be fine shavers, tend to be very delicate. You have to be very careful not to damage the edge.

If you were well satisfied with the edge (heel to toe) before the damage occurred, send it back to Brad at Maggard and tell him exactly what happened. You might want to email him with the photos ahead of time. Good luck!

The issue with the heel is that the edge is starting to lead back into the heel and that will cause the heel to lift up off the hone and cause a heel hook, and a wobbly edge. Correcting it at this point is super simple and any of the guys I know that hone would just fix that as part of a routine honing for a blade with that much wear. It is also in the pre dropped pictures. Due to lighting it is harder to see, but the hone wear on the stabilizer is there, and it is not a big deal, just part of the wear on the old girl.

Yea, dropping the razor had nothing to do, with the heel problem.

The heel squares off from honing, as the blade gets narrower and is then ridding on the stone, keeping the heel half of the razor off the stone.

Because the edge is not on the stone, the honer typically, uses more pressure, causing excessive spine wear over the heel, wear on the stabilizer and a wonky, un-even edge.

Correcting the heel, rounding it off, will move the corner of the edge forward of the stabilizer, taking it completely out of play when honing, making it easier to hone and a straighter edge.

It will also prevent a sharp corner and eventually a hook, if left unattended.

Here is what a repair would look like, the red circle is the radius that needs to be cut.

The green arrow is where the edge ends now, see how far past the start of the stabilizer it is and the, (Blue Arrow) is the wear where the stabilizer is hitting the stone. You can see it better, if you enlarge the photo.

The Red arrow is where the new corner will end, well forward of the stabilizer, and now the stabilizer will not touch the stone when honing, more importantly the edge will sit flat on the stone.

It takes less than a minute to fix on a diamond plate, just a few strokes and some blending, then hone normally.

It is fairly common, and I suspect, the cause of many honing issues for new honers on vintage blades.

In Short, Buy from SRD or here on the B/S/T.
Send it to someone. Back to ware you got it or to one of the great honing folks here on the forum. Stay in the family is what I say. Us being the family, and you cant go wrong! BTW, SRD is part of the family too.

That razor should never have gone out the door with a heel like that. Just sayin'

Originally Posted by onimaru55

That razor should never have gone out the door with a heel like that. Just sayin'

I thought Brad was a well respected honemeister, could this have just been an oversight? Is it possible that I damaged the heel upon dropping it that it revealed something that wasn't obvious before the drop? I want to trust that I can get shave ready vintage razors and new Ralf austs from Maggards in the future, but what you are describing isnt sounding like that. Maybe we can get Brad here to explain what's going on?

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