Thread: A Sad Tale...

Usually, with things like this, there is no mystery. When there are muddy, size 4 footprints on your rug, a rabid gnome did not rampage through your house, no matter what your 6 year old says. What is more likely in this situation is there was a full grown man playing baseball with his razor, and now he's embarrased that he jacked it up and is telling us a story.

Thanks for all the useful replies, chaps!

I'm getting a lot of hassle from the buyer, which I can do without, so I think - against my better judgement - that I'll just make a full refund and try to forget the whole nasty business.

Thanks again,
Neil

Originally Posted by DaveW

Wouldn't you think a prolonged soak in low heat, if anything, would promote a more complete tempering, and more toughness, and (what seems like a foreign possibility to me) less hardness if anything?

I'm thinking that we are dealing with a plain carbon steel or something very close to it here, else the erosion probably wouldn't have been there.

Yes, it would convert more of the transition metal to normal (sorry I don't recall the proper martinsite and austonsite names). This would release some of the stresses in some areas and create more in others and on a metal as thin as the razor, cause fracturing. That is why all heat treating is finished before final machining. Heat treating and them tempering causes the metal to move. I did say alter the temper and stresses in my post above, didn't I?

I would say that after all that poor razor was put through and shaved with 4 times...no warranty whatsoever...but thats just me.
I would never dream of going back to someone and asking for a refund after doing any of that...but again, that's just me. If you're going to go all "cowboy" and attempt things you're not qualified to do then you should just suck it up and admit to your failure, learn from it and move on, not blame a qualified vendor

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Thanks for all the useful replies, chaps!

I'm getting a lot of hassle from the buyer, which I can do without, so I think - against my better judgement - that I'll just make a full refund and try to forget the whole nasty business.

Thanks again,
Neil

Neil, if you give this guy a refund, I'm going to buy a strop from you, run it over with my lawnmover, and ask you to replace it due to inferior worksmanship.

Judging from the color of the metal, blue rather than shiny steel, I would say something has happened to the temper. What happened, I have no idea. Keep YOUR MONEY, let him keep HIS RAZOR! I would also send a printout of this thread to the lucky owner.

Originally Posted by woodsmandave

Neil, if you give this guy a refund, I'm going to buy a strop from you, run it over with my lawnmover, and ask you to replace it due to inferior worksmanship.

Gulp!

Hmmm - a strop for lawnmowers, now there's an idea....

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Joed

I have seen metals fracture with less temperature deviations. If you look up the definition and process of tempering you will find that some of the metal is locked in a transition even after a second temper. Recommended temperatures for tempering are to achieve the most conversion of the molecules from transition to a natural state thus relieving stresses. Any temperature will allow a metal to convert the transition molecules, an elevated temp for a prolonged period will enhance the rate. I expect that is what caused the blade to chip over time.

If that were the case, I'd expect that autoclaves would never have been developed.

The chips we're seeing are most likely from hitting the edge against a hard object.

I really have to agree to the dinged it on something.

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Thanks for all the useful replies, chaps!

I'm getting a lot of hassle from the buyer, which I can do without, so I think - against my better judgement - that I'll just make a full refund and try to forget the whole nasty business.

Thanks again,
Neil

The practical side of me would agree . Give the guy a refund , and get on with business . It would probably cost more to fight it . The emotional side of me says , "OVER MY DEAD BODY" .