Thread: I need info

Originally Posted by Jeremiah7

Attachment 163236
Is this pitting???

Those black spots are pitting. The concern is whether there is any on the bevel which is the shiny angled bit that is ground into the metal to form the cutting edge. If there was, metal would have to be removed until clean, unpitted metal could be used to form the cutting edge. What you have there looks fine as far as I can tell from the photo.

I'm tempted but i'll zip my lip.

Feel Free to speck your mind my feeling don't get hurt very early. I think if your not going to say what you think then don't post anything at all. So feel Free. Vent my friend vent!!!!!

Hello Jeremiah,
Yes you are absolutely 100% correct and my sincere apologys for my rude post.
What i should have written was that in my opinion youve got the cart before the horse.
When i first started investigating straight razor shaving i spent weeks reading from tons of valuable info her on SRP way before i decided to purchase a razor.
Once i decided to moved ahead i read all i could on the various razors available, the origin, the metal, the size and shape and all that good stuff before making my first purchase.
Only after purchasing my strop and razor etc did i turn my attention to "how to shave".
What i found surprising is that it seems that you have taken up honing without the basic knowledge of a straight razor.
You need to slow down and take on one task at a time and as they say around here,....enjoy the ride.
The risk you take can not only cause damage to your equipment but you can also loose the enjoyment of the challenges you face.
It is tempting to attack everything all at once but SR shaving requires patience to get the most out of it.
I hope this helps you get the most out of SR shaving Bro'.

Thanks for the advice but I'm mostly a collector. I have one for shaving. I bought this one to try honing the blade needed the work so I thought I'd give it a try. I prolly do need to slow my role a little bit but that's not me. I learn what I can while I can. I learn as I go so ya I do make mistakes but I learn from them. I don't know when my time is up so when it is I want to be able to say I learned all I could. I always look for advice and appriceate it "good or bad" I learn from it. I'm still young so there's still a lot I have to learn but there's also a lot that I already know. I really do thank you for the advice and I'm glad you wrote back to tell me what you were thinking. The reason I don't know about pitting is because I use a H. Boker "Pearl" that is in perfect condition just needs the strop now and again and my others are in good condition as well. I thought I needed how to learn honing and thought I'd try. Well I'm rambling so thank you again. And I hope you have a nice day!!!

That larger, rounder area on the right (in the last picture) is the one you're going to be concerned about. I can see that there is some uninterrupted metal right at the edge, but the depth of that etching is hard to determine, and you may well get into deeper pitting as you hone.

Having said all of that, I'm much like you. I started buying up razors with the thought of restoring them (mostly for a love of vintage stuff) and I've learned a lot along the way. I've gotten lucky. My very first SR purchase was found in a antique shop for $9. Turns out that it could be worth 10 times what I paid. It's hard to go absolutely wrong with a blade without it being completely obvious. Learn to watch for those dark patches and pick blades with a good edge profile. You'll do fine. I have personally found a lot of joy in the learning process, and it sounds like you will too.

Good luck.
Aaron

Thank you! I'm just starting out so I still got a lot to learn but I'm learning it slowly. And support helps. So that really meant a lot. So thank you.

Just to be clear, the cutting edge in the last picture is on the left? That's how I see it.

No the edge is to the right. Not very good news for me but thats OK. I couldnt go wrong for what I have into it. And now I know to watch for pitting. thanks to everyone now I know what it is

Edge pitting.


This razor is pretty much toast. The type of pitting you see here is known as filiform corrosion.
read about it here;
Different Types of Corrosion: Filiform Corrosion or Underfilm Corrosion - Its Causes and Prevention, by WebCorr Corrosion Consulting Services. corrosion types, corrosion forms, pipe corrosion, generalized corrosion, pitting corrosion, galvanic corros

Some people refer to it as devil's spit. Either way, the pattern on this razor means that to find good steel, you would lose a third of the blade to get an unmarred edge. I honed this one and shaved with it, BUT, it wasn't the best shaver as the edge had a few holes in it.