Originally Posted by
silverloaf
honesty is always good! glad to hear all sides. personally i feel its a disservice to a blade to leave it in a state where moisture and microbes can make inroads. its a historical fact that cutlers would regrind blades as the need would arise so as to preserve the useability. some of the razors we use today are examples of that fact, being useable still because someone cared enough to not let them degrade into rusty heaps a century ago.
and please, no one mistake what i say as promoting the haphazard regrinding and potential destruction of razors. i tend to gravitate to razors in need of saving, most need a lot more than this one did. i let the nice clean razors go to others, i prefer the rusty heaps. when i put care into cleaning them up it is always with the intention of passing them on and hoping they will be serviceable for much longer. it is a haphazard thing on my part, in my mind, if i remove active rust but leave the razor in a less than easy state of maintenance. there are exceptions. many, many exceptions. but with so many new users just getting started all the time i feel it is respect paid to these once neglected blades to give them the best chance of a long life possible. to do so i tend to give them a higher luster and strive for fewer blemishes because 1) fewer blemishes means less places for moisture and microbes and 2) a polished blade has less surface area (think- finer and finer ridges) than a less polished blade and thus does not show oxidation as readily and also has less surface for microbes to hide. take a look at the blades of yesteryear that were less finely ground vs the crocus finished blades. the crocus tend to survive much better and with less scars. not my opinion, its science. so everything i do is not for the sake of shiny, its out of respect for these old blades and my intense desire to see them persist. my respect just manifests itself differently than your respect for them. respect nonetheless.
and i appreciate those blades that we say "if they could talk..." but i tend to hear them saying to me, "if only i had some semblance of my former self..." but again, there are exceptions, many, many exceptions.;)