Quote Originally Posted by Utopian View Post
"The scales were most likely replaced"???

Wow.
He told me that he unpins his razors and stores blade and scales separately, so he would already have spotted both the marks on the blade and the deterioration on the scale. The marks are certainly not recent if that is the case, because when I got the blade 2 months ago the stains where already there and before that, according to him, the blade was "naked".

Quote Originally Posted by Utopian View Post
Regarding the honing, it may or may not be able to be "fixed" with a 12k Shapton. It would be a matter of technique but given that you are new to this odds are low. Also, you need to keep in mind that this seller uses lots of tape so it would be easiest to match that thickness. Did the seller acknowledge the honing was insufficient? It was pretty obvious in your photo.
I didn't ask him specifically about it, since I was more concerned with the celluloid rot issue. I also bought a Norton 4K/8K and a King 1K, so maybe I'll try the 12K and then lower the grit as necessary. I'll use the three layers of tape he told me he used when honing both razors (though he was using a Super 88 and all I have around is Scotch 33+, thus the original question in this thread :-)).

Also, could you please tell me what you saw that pointed to the blade being insufficiently honed? Looking at it (not the photo) I can't really say, since I don't know what to look for.

Thans!