Sounds to me like the steel is too soft. Either over tempered, pulled from quench too soon, or overheated during buff.
Have you measured the bevel angle?
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Sure looks good, hate it that it just has no soul. I've done it quite a few times my friend. Last batch of knives I made I warped one, tried to straighten...snapped it. Best I did anyways, it was grainy.
Lovely looking razor. Pity about the issues you are having.
I think they were right. I suspect to the thinly grind edge (0.8 mm) before the HT. Because the situation has improved, that took off the edge but not enough.
Yest. It is perfect, 16° with one layer of tape.
Just do not practice the heat treatment. It has made by other master.
If it were mine, i would do a couple of things. I would take it to a coarse stone (not grinder) and take 2-3mm off the edge by honing at about 45 degrees. Then re-hone and shave.
If it is still a bad HT, you can still learn from it. Make a pattern off it. Then, if it were mine I would put it in a vice straight up and down and break it in the vice to see what the grain is doing. That way not all is lost and you can "see" what is wrong.
I will do this and I will see.
In addition I will make a simple razor fort test.
My plan for the HT:
I leave at least 1 mm (3/8") thikness of the edge.
soaking: 805C / 1480F, 8-10 min.
quenching oil: 50-60C / 130F, 30-60 sec
tempering: after cooling to room temperature, 205C / 400F, 2x1h (between cooling to room temperature) or 1x2h
What do you think? This should work, isn't it?
Tim Zowada wrote about this:
"
First, the blade must be properly normalized and spherodize annealed. Then,
If using a gas forge, for O-1:
1. Heat to 1500F - All "shadows" are gone. No soak at temperature. It is too easy to overheat in a forge. This is why I would prefer 1084 or 1095 over O-1 in a forge.
2. Immediatly quench in warm (160F/70C) oil (Park AAA) - rapid agitation of blade.
3. Interrupt quench when blade reaches about 400F/204C (pseudo martemper)
4. Air Cool to room temperature.
5. Temper at 380F two times.
"
My question is the 3. point. How importance to interrupt at this temperature? What is the significance of this?
An other guy's recipe. Sorry but I dont rememeber hes name, I copied from SRP.
"Heat to 1450 F and hold for 15 minutes. This is called soaking, and it allows the carbon to dissolve back into the iron.
Quench in Parks AAA quench oil, preheated to 130 F. This is a slow cooling oil. You could also use vegitable oil or any number of other oils, but this stuff was designed specifically for heat treatment. For about $10 a gallon, I'd rather just use the best.
After a minute, take the steel out and allow it to air cool. When it's cool enough to touch, put it in the oven to temper it. I temper at 425 F for two hours. Allowing the steel to cool down in one hour cycles isn't necessary."
One minute or less? Cool enough to touch: this is the room temperature or higher?