Here's another example of heat damage that's not visible until one gets the blade and can look at it sunlight. Of course the photos in the auction did not show anything like this so the buyer has no idea what is there until he ca see it in sunlight. The seller doesn't SEEM to be familiar with razors but who knows.
I picked up what seemed to be a nice C-Mon that I received last night. Initially it appeared pretty good and I looked at it with an eye to what I needed to do to get it back to original condition. The pictures in the auction seemed to match what was in my hand so I left positive feedback. This morning as I prepared to head out to my shop and give it a quick hone, I noticed in the sunlight that it had very obvious rainbows. Uh oh.. While not obvious in artificial light, in sunlight I can see rainbow coloring from purple to straw on both sides of the bevel and on one side it extends up to the spine. Bummer!!!!
Looks to me like someone went to town with a grinder/buffer using cotton or sisal and kept the blade there for a loooong time trying to remove something. There's no recent indication of any grinding so I'm thinking it was an overzealous buffer.
So this is a $50 letter opener if the seller refuses to refund. Just a heads up for those using eBay that even if the pictures don't show heat damage, look at the blade in sunlight to check for it before leaving positive feedback. In this case I wish I'd asked the seller directly if there was any hint of heat damage or "rainbow coloring". I will always ask if there is a visible crack in the blade if the pix are blurry or dim but rarely think to ask about heat damage.
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Here you can see the colors at the top of the bevel - not in the auction pix.
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And the other side - also no hint in the auction pix.