Thread: Micro pitting, how much is too much?

I've just finished re setting the bevel and honing a Carl Herder and notice something very interesting...

simple look, the blade looked great... the edge had a polish after the 8k, but before moving tot he 12 k just for finishing i wanted to see in the microscope and noticed micro pitting in the very edge... analyzing the blade there are some other areas were it's present, however the bad part i that it's in the edge as well...

here's how it looks, first even at 500x could not be seen:



however, on the 1000x you can see it clearly:





so.. i'll finish and do a shave test (i guess?) but how much could I call this "shave ready" knowing that it has that micro pitting there?
how much pitting is too much? would you still call it a good blade or should i just put this on the box of "collection only"?

furthermore... if anyone wanted to buy a blade in this status.. would you call it shave ready just because it shaves well?.. ir you think it's actually impossible that this shaves well?

just looking for some... perspective

cheers!

Gabe

UPDATE: after moving to the naniwa 12k and stropping, I tested it.... just finished shaving ...
I was hesitant at the beginning, but the thing shaves alright... now... comments? :O

Thats a very good question. I am curious to hear what other have to say.

I think its entirely possible that the edge could shave just fine....except you know that the condition exists...and that in itself will always be in the back of your mind when you use her. The condition would bug me even if it didn't effect the shave.

Selling the razor as is without disclosing this condition is your call.

I have a current production Revisor that has two areas of bad metal. One spot worked its way into the bevel and down to the edge as I honed it over a year. The razor shaved alright, but I couldn't get around the fact that there was bad metal there. This particular razor was a fine shaver and it was rescaled in custom Briarwood scales before I noticed the issues. I eventually replaced the blade and my restoration guy was generous enough to do the blade swap for free. The new blade is defect free and shaves great.

Attached is a close up of my bad metal that worked its way out. Ill also attach a shot of it in Briarwood, not to hijack your thread, but so you can understand how upsetting this was to me after such lovely scales were made for her.


Good luck!

Originally Posted by BadB

Selling the razor as is without disclosing this condition is your call.

Oh... I leave.in Costa Rica so i dont sell blades... just buy nevertheless.... if i was to sell this blade I would definedly inform the buyer... but to be honest i'm not sure i would sell it...

the question was going the other way around in my mind... if I had purchased this blade and was advertised as "shave ready"... would this be a justification for me to return it?

This blade was purchased for practice... not advertised as shave ready... it had bevel issues and so previous owner honing produced a misshape.of the spine, so the width of the blade was 19.5 mm on the hill and 17 on the toe ... which i just corrected too... so the micropitting is not a biggie since it was really cheap and just a practice razor, but it was not advertised as having micro pitting... nor shave ready either..

Anyhow, like the title says... how much is too much for micropitting? and considering some of us buy "shave ready" razors.in ebay.... how much this would be a "certainly not shave ready"?

I mean i just shaved with this razor
... not the best shave ever, but not the worst... would that justify someone to sell me a blade loke this and call it "shave ready"?

On the other hand... not everyone has a.microscope.and the seller migth just hace honesd it and tested it... and when i get it i see.the pitting on microscope...

Where would ve the line for you guys? Is from now on a microscope revision part of the "shave ready test"?

The intend of this thread is not.to judge anyone, but learn from perspectice of different folks in the community...

By the way... that Revisor of yours is just gorgeous!!!

Your level of magnification is so high that I'm not sure that many really analyze their razors like that. I think I have a 30X loupe and that is as far as I ever go. Maybe I have blades that look like that. What I cn tell you is that if my blades shave well I consider them shave ready. I have never looked at a blade at 500 before. The was a well known member here who used to talk about that he enjoyed honing for a while and then bought a microscope and then all the minute details that he had never seen before started to drive hime crazy. After some time had passed he sold his microscope and all his hones and had his razor done by someone else after that. No more obsessing.

On the side track, nice scales.

Ah, ok thanks for the clarification.

As a buyer, I think you have justifiable grounds for a return.

I can also see a seller who didn't have a high power loupe run her through his stone progression and not catch the pitting issue. As you know the, "shave ready" term is so subjective. In my mind, as the buyer, the pitting, regardless of how well the razor shaves does indeed knock it out of shave ready condition.

Indeed the microscope.posibilities add some complication to the matter hehe

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To the OP, looks like Cell Rot pitting, and the edge is falling apart. Even at 500X the edge does not look good.

What are you stropping on, and do you know what the scratches on the back of the bevel and the belly of the razor are from?

I would lightly joint it and re set the bevel. You do have at least one pit at the edge.

Was the Herder a Cell Rot razor.

As an aside I did a big old F. Herder for a guy in Reindeer Antler and it was a smoking shaver.

If a razor is honed and will shave then IMO it's "shave ready". If it's sold as no micropitting to 500X then that's justification for returning it. Otherwise, a vintage Ebay razor that shaves well is shave ready.

If it shaves well it's shave ready. If you can't see it at 500x I wouldn't worry about it too much. Of course, once I knew it was there it would bug me until I fixed it. I think I'm probably better off not looking at my bevels that close.

My experience says that blade, in that condition, will create weepers. Tiny cuts. Not shave ready in my book. I would return it if I could see pitting near the edge at 60X. If it were mine, I would try to hone it and shave with it but I have several in my box that looked like that and were not satisfactory to me.