Thread: Soft blade?

gssixgun I am sure I created some of the hone wear, I did tape it though after I read up on honing wedge blades. It looks worse than it is and there is no discernable wear compared to the tang part when i measured the thickness.

Not really sure what other pictures to take, the scales are what I added as it was just the blade when I bought it.

Ive shaved with the other razor now and Im starting to think its more my shaving technique more than anything!

Originally Posted by Bonio

gssixgun I am sure I created some of the hone wear, I did tape it though after I read up on honing wedge blades. It looks worse than it is and there is no discernable wear compared to the tang part when i measured the thickness.

Not really sure what other pictures to take, the scales are what I added as it was just the blade when I bought it.

Ive shaved with the other razor now and Im starting to think its more my shaving technique more than anything!

Maybe you got it sorted then

Sooooooo hard to tell over the internet with pics,, all we can do is give a best guess

So much of this hobby is done by hands on feel,, but hey we try

If heat treating was minimally invasive in regards to depth of the metal, then every old well honed or reground razor would be soft. It has been a few years since my materials science courses; but if one considers the cooling rate of the metal as dependent to the hardness of the metal, then hardening would be proportional to the rate of cooling with the depth of the razor. So, it would theoretically change with depth, but final grinding after heat treat would remove that top layer anyways. Since razors are relatively thin metal, it would lead me to believe that a large portion of the metal itself from spine to edge is uniform. Of course, this also considers the cooling to be applied instantaneously in the described area. Dipping toe first or edge first and that rate of immersion would have to be taken into account if we're going to the extreme nitty gritty.

Hardness differentiation on older Sheffield razors:

You might want to poke around in the archives IIRC it was Josh Earl that did some Hardness tests back in 07 on some of the Older Sheffielders

Guys I have to say thanks to all of you, 1) for all the information 2) making me feel welcome here.

I have been using the internet since 1993 (such as it was back then) and i run my own websites including one that has been on the go since 1998 and rarely is ever have I seen a community as descent as this one.

Cheers.

Ill park this wedge up until I can be certain I can get it as sharp as it can be and concentrate on learning to hone with a more 'normal' shape blade and mean time learn to shave properly with a shave ready razor.

Originally Posted by dinnermint

If heat treating was minimally invasive in regards to depth of the metal, then every old well honed or reground razor would be soft. It has been a few years since my materials science courses; but if one considers the cooling rate of the metal as dependent to the hardness of the metal, then hardening would be proportional to the rate of cooling with the depth of the razor. So, it would theoretically change with depth, but final grinding after heat treat would remove that top layer anyways. Since razors are relatively thin metal, it would lead me to believe that a large portion of the metal itself from spine to edge is uniform. Of course, this also considers the cooling to be applied instantaneously in the described area. Dipping toe first or edge first and that rate of immersion would have to be taken into account if we're going to the extreme nitty gritty.

From Verhoven's experiments all of the steel about 1/8" and thinner hardened. That is about half of the blade.