Very small fractures on the blade

First off, I'll talk about my general care and use of my razor.

I shave everyday with my razor, and afterwards I always clean the blade, tang, ect, with a square of toilet paper. I also strop my razor roughly every 7-9 days. While stropping I use the linen side with green stropping paste first, (10 up and down "complete" passes) then I use the clean linen side (20 complete passes) and I clean the leather side and do 60 complete passes. I never dropped it once, and I take care of it to the best of my ability.

Today I noticed after stropping my straight razor two extremely small fractures on the blade itself. I noticed when I was running a square of toilet paper across the blade that it catches it slightly, and when I hold it to the light there are two small dark fractures. In the back of my head I know I will need to hone it, but I do need advice about how I should hone a straight razor with these fractures on the blade, and how I can prevent this from happening in the future.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Any chance you can post pix ? First off I would day stropping on green paste .... chrom-ox I assume ? .... daily is too much of a good thing. Anyway, if the 'fractures' are cracks you may be fighting a losing battle. Depends on how far they go. What caused them is beyond me ?

Thats not a good thing:( tell us more about the razor.

It is a Thiers-Issard 5/8 Sheffield silver steel full hollow blade. I tried to take a picture of the fractures, but I don't have a camera that is able to focus on the blade or take a picture that is a high enough resolution to see the problem.

I am an amateur at this so please don't take this as wisdom-but sometimes fresh eyes...

Could your large amount of stropping on a regular basis be thinning the blade too much?

Also, if the metal was not treated correctly with annealing etc (which i'm sure even TI have a bad day!) then the stresses within that metal would not have been relieved, and the extra-fine job you have done thinning the blade has taken the support away from microscopic sections and the fractures are the result.

Hope that gives you something else to think about!

mahtay

Classic is somewhere out in CA .... maybe close enough to bring it there, or a member is close by who could take a look ? Do you have magnification , microscope, eye loupe ? Are they hairline fractures that don't go completely through one side to the other ? Cracks that do ? TBH, if they are cracks and they run up through the bevel into the belly of the blade then it is toast IMHO. If you bought it new you might could ask the vendor to look into a warranty replacement.

Jimmy: I do use chromium oxide paste for my stropping, and the good news is that I have a picture that shows the problem. I just had to use my headlamp to shine the light at the right angle on the blade. Though I hope it isn't a "losing battle" as you say. It's not that it's an issue on price, it's more about this being my razor, and it being a beautiful work of art.

Mahtay: I wasn't aware that I was stropping it too much. I'll look into it and change my habits wherever needed. When I troubleshoot computers I always look at the basics and move up, I should probably apply the same principle to my maintenance habits.

Attachment 101417

Attachment 101418

A much better picture

Maybe see a couple tiny chips,hard to say,Your not going to fracture a blade with stropping normally.Bevel also looks a little strange.

Are you sure you've never had a run-in with the "faucet demon", or gone too high on your strop so as to hit the metal fasteners? The close-up picture looks alot like blades I've seen (unfortunately, 1 was my own) that have met something besides whiskers? It appears that the gouges go well into the bevel, which in most cases, can be fixed...just my 2 cents worth. I hope all turns out well for ya, and welcome aboard!
Nick

I find this odd, very good brand of razor, no abuse to the blade. Must be stress in the steel or something happened during shipping.

Well only real hope is to hone it out, slowly, keep checking with magnification to ensure you don't take off more steel then you need to. I hope your cracks don't extend to far. Nobody here likes to see a razor become unusable!

I have a small crack on my oldest razor, a sheffield with a nice smile. But it's back on the heel, and with the smile i never use that part of the blade. So I'm trying to ignore it as long as I can.

Let us know how it works out.
Nathaniel.

I'm sorry and i'm new here but did you say that you had a theirs with Sheffield sliver steel? i thought theirs made their own blades in france

I've had blades like that from over honing, or the edge is to thin and starts to crumble. Try starting on a 1k with a raised spine and x-strokes until the chips are gone, then go to circles or x-strokes until it cuts arm hair, check the edge with a eye loupe or whatever you use and make sure they are gone, if not repeat or drag the edge across a corner and repeat the circles and edge strokes. Once the edge is perfect then hone as usual.

I hope this helps

Just my opinion but I would guess serious over stropping on the CrOx is leaving larger micro chips?

I emailed Classic Shaving with the pictures and the problem description. Before I try any honing on my own I'll check with them to see what they can do for me on their end. It helps to play it safe when venturing into unknown territory ;).

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Originally Posted by rodb

I've had blades like that from over honing, or the edge is to thin and starts to crumble.

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I had my blade professionally honed by Classic Shaving when I bought it. I'm starting to wonder if the warranty (if it exists) will have it either re-honed or replaced. I've never honed a straight razor before, and to be honest It's something that I won't be stepping into lightly when I do hone my razor for the first time. I'll use your method if CS says I'm SOL. Though I've had excellent experiences with CS so I have faith they'll some something for me lol.

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Originally Posted by Nick31

Are you sure you've never had a run-in with the "faucet demon", or gone too high on your strop so as to hit the metal fasteners? The close-up picture looks alot like blades I've seen (unfortunately, 1 was my own) that have met something besides whiskers?

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Nope, just linen, whiskers (occasionally skin and blood lol) leather, and toilet paper.

How many shaves ???? did you get out of your system ???

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

How many shaves ???? did you get out of your system ???

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Around 100 or so.

Looks like micro chipping. Can be honed out. Not sure why it would have happened. TI made razors branded 'silver steel' for many years. They changed to a new alloy a few years back. I've got some of both types and they are all good IME. Micro chips happen. Poltergeist maybe ? :thinking:

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Originally Posted by Stones

Around 100 or so.

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Then it is fine IMHO, 100 shaves is a good run, you have to do a complete bevel set , which you should only have to do a touch up, but that could be a few different things that caused it...

beard
stropping
pasted stropping
and all the shaving related things too..

You have to adjust just one of those variables next time through and see what happens..

What about your other razors, has this happened to them ???

100's really not at all bad. I'd certainly cut out the daily stropping on the pasted side though, may lead to wear problems on down the line.

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Originally Posted by Stones

Mahtay: I wasn't aware that I was stropping it too much. I'll look into it and change my habits wherever needed. When I troubleshoot computers I always look at the basics and move up, I should probably apply the same principle to my maintenance habits.

Attachment 101417

Attachment 101418

A much better picture

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They look like chips to me, either too thin an edge (shoulcn't be a problem on a quality razor,) stropping without the spine touching the strop and putting sideways force on the blade edge, inadvertent bumping against something hard, or my earlier suggestion-incorrect heat treatment leading to faults in the instrinsic metallurgy of the blade. Maybe a smith could check it out and see what the metal looks like to him...? Good luck!

Like Glen said, it has had a fair run. That, together with an attenuated edge and general wear and tear is a good recipe for micro-chipping, which might even be due to some stray dust particles on the strop. It's minimal damage really and a re-set and hone job should bring it back better than before.

Regards,
Neil

Just my opinion, but if the steel is really hard in a razor, I have experienced this and always thought they were microchips and they will hone out.

Are you putting a bend in the strop with the spine and not the blade? It almost looks like they are fractures at a bend in the edge?

Come on! Someone work this out it's eating up my alone time driving to and from work!!!!