Thread: Rust on my edge

"Breadknife" is really a four letter word and should not be used in this forum.

As my honing sessions are usually quite Long I have seen that happen on one blade in partcular (JMP imperial) The entire blade will discolor,always felt maybe it is just a very high carbon Blade.
Before I hone any blade I now ren-wax them,seems to work for me,granted will not protect the newly honed edge,I just try to keep them dry after each stone.

I may be entirely full of fertilizer here (won't be the first - or last time), but I've gotten downright supersticious about edges having oil on them immediately. Granted - I'm in western Oregon where rust never sleeps. My Wackers will rust in minutes. I've had several blades that will start showing rust in the time it takes to take a leak. Yes, its weird, and I don't know why some rust so fast, but some do. Beyond visible rust, I've had blades I've honed where I dry them and wait until the next day to strop and test. HHT performance drops if I don't have the edge coated w/ oil. So - superstition or not - I've come to think of an uncoated blade as a dull blade.

Originally Posted by unit

+1

The bloom you see is the swarf from the DMT getting lapped up onto the blade. This stuff is super fine and has an incredible surface area to volume ratio and will flash rust. I see this all the time on M4 competition (knife blades) I hone on DMTs.

On a razor, I would suggest (getting rid of that deadly hook, and then) basically ignoring that rust and going to your water stones. My real question is why are you waiting 30 minutes? Your edge also has a VERY high surface area and may be rusting also. You need to polish the bevel immediately after the DMTs or oil it.

After fix that heal from the. Nasty hook I'll move to the water stone for sure thanks for the tip about the dmt

Originally Posted by pinklather

I may be entirely full of fertilizer here (won't be the first - or last time), but I've gotten downright supersticious about edges having oil on them immediately. Granted - I'm in western Oregon where rust never sleeps. My Wackers will rust in minutes. I've had several blades that will start showing rust in the time it takes to take a leak. Yes, its weird, and I don't know why some rust so fast, but some do. Beyond visible rust, I've had blades I've honed where I dry them and wait until the next day to strop and test. HHT performance drops if I don't have the edge coated w/ oil. So - superstition or not - I've come to think of an uncoated blade as a dull blade.

Than I guess I need more oil so I can put it on my blades religiously

Originally Posted by pinklather

I may be entirely full of fertilizer here (won't be the first - or last time), but I've gotten downright supersticious about edges having oil on them immediately. Granted - I'm in western Oregon where rust never sleeps. My Wackers will rust in minutes. I've had several blades that will start showing rust in the time it takes to take a leak. Yes, its weird, and I don't know why some rust so fast, but some do. Beyond visible rust, I've had blades I've honed where I dry them and wait until the next day to strop and test. HHT performance drops if I don't have the edge coated w/ oil. So - superstition or not - I've come to think of an uncoated blade as a dull blade.

You are wise. any edge by its very nature has a VERY high surface area at the apex (which just happens to be the WORST place to develop any sort of corrosion on a razor). This large surface area offers more birth sites per unit volume for rust/bloom/corrosion to develop. What is even scarier is you cannot even see the spots sometimes, but you will feel them! Part of what a strop does is removal of surface bloom on the edge...but if it gets too big, the strop will not be as effective.

There are many ways that an edge looses its keenness. Oxidation is one (perhaps totally avoidable) method. Dulling from use is the only one you really want

Use a bowl for your water supply & stir in a tiny amount of baking soda, maybe a teaspoon or so. That will change the ph slightly & make it less likely to cause rust

Some other notes to understand from just the pic, That is a little bit different grind, which is why is is presenting a bit of a challenge.. See the hollow then the stiffer 1/8 inch of steel that makes up the edge ..

Here is some info in this thread about the grind, http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...al-scales.html look especially at the discussion from #19 and beyond in that thread..

Breadknifing that type of grind created a much larger problem then a Breadknife on other grinds, also if you are into that much of a reapir and still on the DMT it tells me that you Breadknifed it and then started setting the bevel which will take hours... There are step by step ways to do it that make it way easier and way less problematic..

You have compounded quite a few problems into one repair which, with the info that I have from that one pic I can't figure out the overall fix...


Basically the rust is a minor issue, and the solution is hone faster

I was wondering if my eyes were deceiving me. I see now.

If it were mine I would use a very light touch on my DMT extra coarse. I would keep a really close eye on what is going on and stop just short of joining the bevels then go back to the 600 and remove the scratches. I'd try not to join the bevels until the 1200 grit DMT (even better if done on 1000 grit water stones probably).

I have all the DMTs so that is what I use until I hit 4k. Oddly I never use the 325 on razors. It's a dangerous proposition to use even coarser, but I think you may have some removal ahead of you.

Originally Posted by unit

I was wondering if my eyes were deceiving me. I see now.

If it were mine I would use a very light touch on my DMT extra coarse. I would keep a really close eye on what is going on and stop just short of joining the bevels then go back to the 600 and remove the scratches. I'd try not to join the bevels until the 1200 grit DMT (even better if done on 1000 grit water stones probably).

I have all the DMTs so that is what I use until I hit 4k. Oddly I never use the 325 on razors. It's a dangerous proposition to use even coarser, but I think you may have some removal ahead of you.

There are a few Vids on my youtube channel that deal with this I prefer to keep them off of SRP because Beginners use them wrong...

The gradual DMT use like you are describing will work but it will rip the holy heck outta the bevel with deep scratches... Take a look at the vids and listen to the logic behind the steps and it will all make sense to you as you have a firm grasp of honing principals... Should pop a light on for you really easy