Thread: Solving a Mystery

The bevel looks well pitted and rough -usually i would expect a higher reflectance from the bevel of a newly honed razor, but here the bevel looks duller than the face of the blade.

The apex of the bevel looks bit hit and miss,too. What with the pit marks in the bevel and the sporadic pits in the blade hollow, it is reminiscent of 'swiss cheese' syndrome - aka crumbly steel. If so, a lot more steel has to be taken away - in other words a complete bevel reset.

However I mostly 'scry' through a 10x loupe, so your photomicrograph isn't something I am used to seeing.

Regards,
Neil

How much mag do you have there? Use enough and a perfect edge will look like the surface of the moon.

You have all missed the most obvious sign - the sign of the Devil!!! I can clearly make out "666" in that bevel. A full exorcism on that edge is required using a "la holywaterante" layer coticule. Make sure you use the exorcicot method, and maybe a few diluticots toward the end.

James.

Ok, I got a little sidetracked today... Pics and results to come later tonight or tomorrow morning.

What's interesting about this particular blade is that it is capable of cutting hair and giving a full (but uncomfortable) shave. I have never seen an edge that looks like this but still holding together just enough to be somewhat sharp.
Also interesting is that there appears to be a bit of a wire edge, at least on part of the blade. If you look at the right side of the picture, the few white pixels at the very edge are because the steel is turned enough to reflect light back up.

As to the magnification, I need to do some math. I'm using an optical microscope at 40X and then shooting with a digital camera. The image is resized, and of course displayed on a monitor. I'll do some figuring and get back to you with an approximate calculation.

I saw the wire edge but was not 100% if it was picture artifact or not. I very rarely see that on razors, how is the steel a bit soft or no different than

My amatuer opinion is; The pits, I call them craters, are throughout the blade, like quiksand pits waiting to expose themselves. You can raise/reset this bevel & I'm willing to bet that the craters appear again.
A steel person probably can tell me exactly how these crators form inside the steel.

I've got a Mountain Dew going, BTW,,,,,,,,I'm off the Dr. Pepper for a while.

Re the honing , that edge is maybe an exception to the "less is more" rule.
Hopefully the steel is not that "bubbly" throughout.

OK, to be serious now - that's the kind of edge I'd try some of the gentler, slower naturals on. Then I'd exorcise it!!!!

James.

It looks very crumbly (sp?) or brittle, I would run a few passes across the corner of the stone and set a fresh bevel to get to some fresh steel.

I don't think I've ever seen one quite like that

Originally Posted by rodb

It looks very crumbly (sp?) or brittle, I would run a few passes across the corner of the stone and set a fresh bevel to get to some fresh steel.

I don't think I've ever seen one quite like that

I've had a W&B crumble like that after the shave test. Took a few honings to find sound steel. Also a Joseph Allen wedge that never came good even after many attempts but it was badly rusted to start with.