Thread: What we have here is a pain in the

As a newbie to honing, I had a a problem razor whose bevel problem was revealed to me by some of the great advice here. Use black magic marker on the bevel, on each side of the blade. Then take 5 X strokes on your 8K or 6K stone on each side and look at the bevel. Is the black magic marker gone in a clean, crisp line at the bevel along the whole length of the working part of the razor? If not, reset the bevel on a 1k stone and try the marker trick again.

I found out that I had a much more bevel work to do on that razor of mine, and ended up with a great shaver once I fixed the bevel.

Already used the marker and it looked good. Sorry.

I just spent another hour honing the razor with no luck.
I then took another razor and honed it till it was shave ready, so it is not me. I just had to know if I had suddenly started doing something wrong somehow. I will take another fresh look at it in the morning. It must be something in the steel. Sure does have me confused.

I now know what the trouble is. I looked at the razor under very high magnification and the steel is porous. Little pin holes in it and all through the blade and the edge is not smooth. Invisible to the naked eye and even under 10x magnification. I checked several of the other razors I have and they are not like that. I guess I will just Keep it as a collector.

That is the first thing I check when I get a vintage razor. That corrosion/pitting at the bevel can look like swiss cheese when you get to bevel setting. Holes and micro chips come as you remove metal and unless you can get past it to clean steel it will never be a good shaver. I look at that first so that I don't end up wasting time on a worthless blade. Better luck next time.

Actually porousity is not caused by rust or pitting. When the metal is heated and poured into bars or sheets, sometimes they get the metal too hot and it is like when oatmeal is cooking. little bubbles come to the surface and then pop and leave craters. I used to be a jeweler and I saw this a lot in gold soldering joints. If the person were not experienced, they would heat the solder for too long and get it too hot and that would happen. In a casting it is sometimes microscopic. I do not know that much about it but if there are any blacksmiths here perhaps they could explain it better.

Originally Posted by mackie

Actually porousity is not caused by rust or pitting. When the metal is heated and poured into bars or sheets, sometimes they get the metal too hot and it is like when oatmeal is cooking. little bubbles come to the surface and then pop and leave craters. I used to be a jeweler and I saw this a lot in gold soldering joints. If the person were not experienced, they would heat the solder for too long and get it too hot and that would happen. In a casting it is sometimes microscopic. I do not know that much about it but if there are any blacksmiths here perhaps they could explain it better.

With regards to steel, these pores are called voids.

Try resetting the bevel. Hey, if it is a clunker ... what is there to lose, right ?

I have had this happen before and resetting the bevel worked ...

.. maybe I got lucky ...

I have re set the bevel many times and even tried taping the sping. No go. It is a nice looking one with german eagles on it so it will be a display mode. Still worth what I paid for it and the work I have in it.

I wished I would have seen this sooner, but you have nailed it. Congrats, as an earlier poster said(Jmmy) Always check the edge under magnification first. You are also correct about the origins of the porosity, I have seen perfect edges go to absolute crap when you try to shave. All too common with vintage razors, especially the Sheffields. You can probably still save it, but you will have to go to your lowest grit and stay there for a while until you get thru the porous metal.

Well here is a couple of pic. It will just be a collector