Thread: Mirror vs. patina

I have some razors that have a mirror finish. They certainly look good. But I have a couple of older blades that don't have a mirror finish, just the patina that comes with age (and I don't mean discoloration or stains). Call it a dull finish, if you will.

I've thought about buffing them up to a mirror finish but I kind of like the look of aging. I know that with antique furniture the worst thing you can do is refinish it if you care about value. I'm not sure razor would be considered similarly. But is it really necessary to buff every razor up to a mirror finish? I'm not so sure.

Some things to understand

True Mirror finish = Rare
True Patina = Very rare
Bright shiny steel = Good
True Patina = Good
Rust of any type color or degree = Bad

Your razor your face your decision

Cannot disagree with any of that. Nice job with descriptions. But I am talking about true patina. I have a recently acquired razor that has no rust, no pitting, so discoloration, just a kind of dull finish. It is a Crown Razor Co. and I know they stopped producing razors about 1930. It is just a dull colored metal, which I see as patina. So I've considered shining it up to a mirror finish. But I kind of like the patina.

Let it stay for awhile. No hurry, but once it's gone it will take another 100 years to put it back.

If you have a really deep dark patina, I bet it has some black rust hiding under there. A nice mellow light patina that you can easily see through is likely not hiding much. I have an old W&B that I cleaned up. It didn't have enough thickness and depth of etch to get to a gloss or near gloss finish, and the stabilizers have been taken down for some reason. It is not a candidate for taking very far. I think I got most of the black rust and all the red rust off, leaving a bit of pitting. I have used that blade as my experimental piece to recreating patina. I have to say it is not anywhere as nice as natural patina, it is however a little intriguing. Here is when it was mocked up http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...-patina-2.html
One of those things that has some appeal to some. In this case I'm quite happy with it.

Patina on steel is just another name for oxidation. But it's uniform and thin and once formed any further oxidation is slowed down dramatically. With rust it's the opposite, it's localized and deep and often tends to catalyze further degradation of the metal.

Fresh steel, of course (true mirror finish if you will) is highly reactive. Ask those who restore razors and they'll tell you that for the first week or so you've got to be extra careful with your razor because it can start rusting much easier. After a while the top layer of the steel has reacted with the environment (most prominent of those reaction is bounding oxygen, i.e. oxidizing, tarnish, patina... however you want to call it) and the further degradation is slowed down. Initially it may look pretty close to freshly polished blade, but it isn't (as you can verify with the appropriate scientific equipment) and with time even the slow process builds thick enough layer that the reflection of light is significantly altered and you see that as a drastically different look.

But there is no mystery to it.

The same thing happens to the edge, and that your face can tell much sooner than your eyes - it's the dulling of the razor. Stropping it well on a daily basis helps to keep the damage from progressing too fast, but normally after 20-50 shaves the average person tends to want that edge refreshed, i.e. recreated because it doesn't function well enough.


If you like the look there is no reason to polish it, but if your edge doesn't cut hair it has to meet the hones and enough steel removed to create a new edge that would cut.

Providing it is just patina and no rust, i like the effect that 8k-12k micromesh gives - it leaves all the patina but also makes the blade shiny.

I guess I have razors that have rust on them, according to Glen's description, but they look good, shave well, and it's not like they're about to disintegrate into a crumbled mess. I'm thinking patina (oxidisation) and rust (oxidisation) are essentially the same thing?

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

I'm thinking patina (oxidisation) and rust (oxidisation) are essentially the same thing?

There are different forms of iron oxide so it is similar rather than the 'same' thing.

I like patina, as long as no major pits or rust is in it. This one got just a once-over with Maas. Perfect, IMO