Thread: Poor man's damascus

One of my favorite old razors has a very unusual tarnish to it, nothing like the water spots or rust you usually find on ebay razors. Rather, it's a kind of an even, subtle, all-over tarnish like you get with silver. I actually really like it – it's sort of a poor man's damascus, a textured gray matte look with a gleaming bevel. I'm going to get some custom olive wood scales from Joe but ask him not to polish the blade.

Has anyone seen this sort of thing before? Do different steels have different "colors," or different ways of taking a tarnish or patina?

If it matters, this is an old Filarmonica, kind of an odd one in that it's not a Doble Temple or a Sub Cero or Novodur or anything; it just says "Alvarez" on one side of the tang and "Cordoba" on the other. My wife, who knows her way around antiques, says it's probably 1940s based on the type and condition of plastic used for the scales.

Remember that wootz steel has a jacobs ladder pattern on it and is finished in a certain way not a patina which develops over time. so your talking about something different here. Carbon Steel over time would accumulate iron oxide or rust or the mineral Limonite-all the same thing. depending on the environment it was stored in the oxide could contain some other mineral traces which could cause some color variations rather than the usual red brown ugly stuff. The kind of finish whether it was satin or polished or frosted etc would also cause differences. But hey if its attractive to you thats all that matters. Show us some pictures, we'd all like to see.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Remember that wootz steel has a jacobs ladder pattern on it and is finished in a certain way not a patina which develops over time. so your talking about something different here. Carbon Steel over time would accumulate iron oxide or rust or the mineral Limonite-all the same thing. depending on the environment it was stored in the oxide could contain some other mineral traces which could cause some color variations rather than the usual red brown ugly stuff. The kind of finish whether it was satin or polished or frosted etc would also cause differences. But hey if its attractive to you thats all that matters. Show us some pictures, we'd all like to see.

"Poor man's damascus" was a joke – it's definitely not wootz steel. It's just unusual, there's no rust or corrosion (the steel feels completely smooth to the hand), and it doesn't look like water spots (it's too faint and evenly distributed). I'm using the word tarnish because that's what it looks like: it has that overall darkened look that silver gets when it needs a polish. In fact when I got it, and it was in terrible shape – a true ebay junker – even then it had no traces of rust or corrosion, just this cloudy darkening. Which is what made me wonder if the steel it's made of is unusual.

My camera's on the blink so no pics. But anyway the point is not what a marvelous and amazing thing I've got here – a tarnished old ebay razor . Yeah I do find it attractive but I'm a little weird like that, I like a razor to show its age. I was just wondering if you guys who know a lot about steel might have an explanation, if different amounts of carbon content or something affected the "color" of steel or the way it ages or something. I ask a lot of stupid questions around here and this is just the latest of them.

Mate... if it's what i imagine... have a read of this thread and see what you think.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=13913

The chemicals mentioned speed up and make predictable a process that will happen anyway when carbon steel is allowed to oxide over then be rubbed clean.

Does that sound like what you've got there?

Greg Frazer

Originally Posted by Greg Frazer

Mate... if it's what i imagine... have a read of this thread and see what you think.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=13913

The chemicals mentioned speed up and make predictable a process that will happen anyway when carbon steel is allowed to oxide over then be rubbed clean.

Does that sound like what you've got there?

Greg Frazer

Cool, Greg, I think this is exactly it. I really am very ignorant, I had heard of "blued" steel before but never knew what was being referred to. So presumably the previous owner of this razor had it blacked (or "blued"), meaning a process of controlled "corrosion" that, in effect, offers a measure of protection against corrosion? Kind of like an inoculation?

That would make sense, because as I said, the remarkable thing about this razor was the total lack of rust, given how battered it was in all other respects when I got it.

That post you linked me to talked about razors going from "gun-metal grey to almost black." Is there a scale of blacking then? And is it something you have to re-do every once in a while, or just a one-time thing? Are there razors that were blacked at the time of manufacture?

Sorry about the barrage of questions Greg.

Mate

I dont know if it has been purposely blued or not... Im trying to imagine the discolouration (that dont look spelled right) that you're talking about.

Bluing metal is basically the forced rusting of the surface followed by retardation of the rust repeated over and over until the desired colour is realised.

You have no doubt observed that if you use a wire brush or fine sand paper on a rusted surface... when the top layer of oxide is removed the metal surface immediately underneath has been darkened and if this is not what you want then it takes some rubbing to get rid of... this will essentially happen to any carbon steel over time.

If this is allowed to happen naturally... either by the razor being left un-attended for a period of some years or by the razor being repeatedly put away wet then rubbed clean on next use then the surface would/should take on an uneven or unusual pattern of light and dark much like course damascus... again i am referring to a mental picture i have of what you described.

Knives... tools... etc etc made of carbon steel all exhibit this trait.

Razors that were blued at production are not something I have studied in the detail that others here have, but certainly i know they exist. For the same reasons some were selectively gold plated, bluing and other metal finishes have been used over the years to combat the old problem of wet razors rusting up overnight particularly where they are touched or held.

Typically the process would not be repeated once it was done at manufacture... well done rust bluing is extremely robust... i have a very modest collection of ww2 mauser rifles that are between 75 and 90yrs old and the bluing is still fully intact with no signs of rust... mind you they are kept in a very dry environment.

I think i caught all of your questions... please ask some more if i havent been clear somewhere.

Greg Frazer

Greg, thanks so much for this terrific explanation. This is blued steel all right. I guess this may have been a no-brainer for many guys here, but I don't have any knowledge or experience of firearms at all, and didn't know a thing about blueing. But that's definitely what's been done to this filly, whether by the factory or by the previous owner. I think it looks kinda badass.

Originally Posted by Greg Frazer

Mate

Im trying to imagine the discolouration (that dont look spelled right) t

Greg Frazer

It would be the u mate