Thread: How could this be happening?

Originally Posted by The0ctopus

im new to razors, but i know that certain chemicals, will have similair effects as running lighters up and down your metal... they can open the metal up, damage it on the cellular level, allowing oxygen into the metal, weakening it, causing pitting and weakness....

Sadly, you are quite right. Soaking a razor in CLR is probably not the fastest way of damaging it beyond repair, but it's certainly on the list.

Have you thought about scale rot? Sometimes when celluloid breaks down it starts eating away at the metal.

that could be swine flu.

Originally Posted by CraigJ

Have you thought about scale rot? Sometimes when celluloid breaks down it starts eating away at the metal.

He has a new dovo, the scales are plastic.

STAY AWAY from the caustic crap in CLR! Use Maas to shine it up. Wipe the blade and the interior of the scales dry after shaving and from now on use a soft gentle cloth with Tuf-Glide to preserve your razor.

Do those marks appear before or after you use scrubbing bubbles on the blade?
If it's afterwards, you may have your answer.

But if it's during the shave, then I have a feeling it's to do with temperature. I recall a few posts from people in hot, dry environments who have corrosion problems. Maybe some carbon steels really do corrode that easily.

It's worrying me because I started with straight razors this winter, and summer is approaching. I'll be keeping a close eye on my blades and oiling them religiously if needed.

Thanks everyone! I'll let you know if I start seeing results.

This is very unfortunate. Although ground and even polished steel looks perfectly slick there are in fact pores in the metal. If corrosion starts way down in the pores of the metal you can shine it up and more than likely the rust will show up again. It is almost like a cancer in the steel. You see this quite often on the old Wade & Butcher razors where it looks like a black stain. The only way I have found to stop it is to take a liquid rust converter and paint it on with a Q-Tip. Let it sit on the metal for just a minute then clean it up and have it repolished. the rust converter will get down into the pores and convert the rust to a polymer that will stop the process. When completely polished up it shouldn't return.

Beware though. I told someone about this a few years ago and he decided to soak the razor blade end in the rust converter over night and in the morning he had a black toothpick looking thing with handles.

John

What John says is interesting. I have looked at a number of new blades under high magnification, and some of them definitely have noticeable pores in the metal - some even having what look like micro-bubbles. If the corrosion has statred way down in the pore/pit/bubble it may continue to spread, undercutting the steel. It's more noticeable when restoring old razors - you see just a tiny speck on the surface and start sanding, then a blue-black stain sometimes appears, much larger than the original speck. If a razor does have a lot of pores, it can act like a microenvironment and getting the moisture out before any damage is done can be problematical - wiping it may leave traces deep in the pore. Then if you oil the blade you are effectively sealing the misture in the pit.

Regards,
Neil

Good to see someone else from Vegas. hard water, yes. low humidity, yes! I'm dealing with lather problems currently, but drying and cleaning the razor is pretty well answered by the replies above.