Thread: Can it be honed?

Just picked up this Otto Deutsch & Söhne the other day.




As you can see there is pretty significant pitting (hope the picture illustrates). New to the scene and was curious if you guys think she can be made shave ready. If the blade is too far gone I guess I will wind up hanging it on the wall or something. Appreciate your opinions.

Hello.

I'm pretty sure it can be honed. It's a matter of how much pitting there is near the edge. If you can set a bevel on a 1000k hone where no pitting makes a saw mark in the edge you are good to go.

However the pitting might have weakened the edge material so much, that it's difficult to reach the same high grit on the finisher, as you normal would use.

I'll stop the razor on a coticule if it's possible to set a bevel without pitting marks.

The razor is worth the effort to try and get a shaving edge

Looks like celluloid rot to me. I don't know how that might influence the blades ability to take an edge (it might), but please tell me those are not the original scales. If so, get them off as soon as possible, salvage the inlay and bolsters (acetone is your friend) and throw them out (the scales, of course, not the inlay and bolsters).

As for honing, try to get a clean bevel.

I agree - that rust pattern that suddenly stops 5mm from the top just screams cell rot. As Pithor said, if you still have those scales on it get rid of them immediately as a first step.

Whether it can be honed or not remains to be seen. As Glen said, it's worth a try. My heart says you could find some good steel there somewhere, but my head is saying that's a lot of pitting and you might have to really take back a lot of steel.

Good luck.

James.

yea, I'd bet large that's cell rot.

Whether it can be saved depends on the depth of the corrosion. Start honing and see what happens.

Welcome to SRP and thanks for your service. Celluloid, what those scales are made of, sometimes has a chemical reaction, releasing gases that cause significant corrosion. Eventually, if the steel isn't separated from the celluloid it will destroy it.

If the existing rust is pitted too deeply when you go to hone it the pits will cause the edge to resemble Swiss cheese. It may or may not be that deep. Here is an example of a worst case scenario ;

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Here is an example of a worst case scenario ;

Still, lots of potential there for a shorty!

To the OP, I will give one bit of off-topic advice for now or in the future...

You did a great job of cleaning the rust off of that razor. In my opinion though you did too great of a job. That is, you still have an orange peel effect in the steel. Now, if you had tried to eliminate all of that, then you likely would have destroyed the blade. However, because you polished it up so nicely to a near mirror finish, it highlights that orange peel surface. If you had left it more coarsely sanded or buffed, with vertical lines running from spine to edge, you would have simulated original grind marks and you would have hidden a lot of that orange peel.

Oh, and you also did a great job making the scales beautiful. Now through them away.
Seriously.
If you want to keep the bolsters, you can dissolve the scales in acetone.

For the duller among us, please note that this should be done outdoors or in a very well ventilated area, like the outdoors.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Here is an example of a worst case scenario ;

Originally Posted by Utopian

Still, lots of potential there for a shorty!

Point taken ...... pun intended ........ Here is an example of a worst case scenario ..........

I h$!l, that is the worst I have ever seen.

Still, there might be some good steel in the tang!