請問各位大大，
在電影Nick of Time裡面，
壞人Mr. Smith在威脅男主角Gene Watson時，
舉了一個例子是他以前曾經殺掉不聽話的同夥。
Mr. Smith: There was this guy ...
Big guy, Irish-Italian.
Red-faced, black-haired, jolly son of bitch ...
Wait a second, nobody could make me laugh like him.
He made a science of collecting jokes.
We closed more bars together than I could count.
Now, he was a pal.
I loved the crazy mick.
I'm not ashamed to say that, but ...
He was a fuck-up.
He had this image of himself.
He thought he was a con man.
Always trying to shave the edge.
He was nickel and dime.
I'll always miss him.
上下文連結在此：
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113972/characters/nm0000686
請教"shave the edge"在這裡是要表達什麼啊？
我查了字典和google，都只有找到實質的切東西之類的意思。
謝謝。