Thread: Cracks

I have a question. I have 2 vintage razors, one from EBAY and one from a friend, and both have an almost identical crack in the blade about 1/2 inch from the heel? of the blade. The cracks are almost invisible, but you can feel them with your fingernail. The start at the edge and run about 1/8 in up toward the spine.

Is this common in old razors? The first one, I did not even notice until I had the blade almost completely polished. The other one I noticed before I started.

Can either of the blades be saved, or are they wall hangers?

Randy

Bummer. I had a crack right near the toe of one I was restoring and luckily I was able to round the edge a bit more to take the crack out and you'd never know it unless I told you.


Your situation on the other hand.....I would say it depends on the type of grind. If they are full hollow grind and you're treading close to belly territory, I would think they'd be toast. But, if they're 7/8 or 8/8 meat choppers, you could have them reground smaller. It would be pretty hard if not impossible to crack a full wedge though so you must be talking about hollow ground razors.

Chris L

can you post some pics?

From your description those razors are not useful any more. Many old razors on ebay are in decent condition. You should stay away from blades with cracks. or any blades with chips greater than 1/16 of an inch.

I *just* got a very nice razor on Ebay (I thought). It looked good in the pictures, looked great when I got it, I examined it carefully, then used some MAAS to clean it up, and it shined up nice. Very cool.

I spent a few minutes re-establishing the bevel with my 1200 DMT, and then examined the entire edge to make sure I hadn't missed any chips and there it was.

A little back from the middle of the blade, a crack starting at the edge and going up into the blade, toward the spine, at least 8 bevel widths.

It was only visible at 40 power on the microscope. Very clear at 100 power. Not visible to the naked eye at all.

So, the lesson is, you can't tell from the Ebay pictures. Sometimes you just get a bad razor.

At least the scales were nice.

Actually, this turned out to be a bad week.

I got another razor the same day, and it had a crack as well--but I was bottom-feeding when I got it, only paid $3.00 for it (plus ship).

Then I got a Shuredge with a hammered tang. Looked real nice. Turns out it is warped. It will hone but I need to put a bit of a smile in it to get it to shave. You'll be able to tell because the bevel is wide at the ends and narrow in the middle on one side, and wide in the middle and narrow at the ends on the other side.

So, three razors in one week, all from Ebay, total of about $40.00 spent, and only one can even be honed, and that one will look funny.

None of this was visible in any of the pictures. There was absolutely no way to tell there were defects in these razors without holding them in my hands, attempting to hone, or in one case, examining under a microscope.

So, I take that $40.00 and add it to what I have spent so far, and then divide by the GOOD razors, and that is my average price. Works out to about $1.00 per razor.

On the other hand, I paid $20.00 for a bunch of dogmeat razors and one of them was an OUTSTANDING Rogers Diamond Edge fancy wedge. A little cleaning and it is AWESOME--worth at least $80 or $90 completely restored and shave ready.

So maybe it all evens out in the end, and we have lots of nice razors, a few dogs, and no money left!!!!!