Thread: First e-bay razor :)

Looks like you got it pretty sharp to me.

Over honing = MICRO CHIPPING?

Also a distinct possibility! I guess I am just getting to grips with honing and everything and probably being a little too enthusiastic. It looks so easy in the videos but when try to do it yourself you realize that there is definitely some skill involved I guess it will just take practice until I get it right.

I'm going to have to go with NOT nickle plated. Just needs work. And you did a nice job cleaning it up!

Yeah I am starting to wonder about the nickel plating myself now! Wish there was an easy and cheap way to test. I found some stuff online for like $20 to test for Nickel but I don't really fancy paying twice the price of the razor plus shipping just to find out what it it is

I would like to polish the remaining marks on it but am afraid to do it yet in case it is nickel so for now I will concentrate on just getting it sharp!

I just received a new Roo strop with wool felt from SRD today with some 0.5 diamond spray so will be looking forward to using that also

Last night I half submerged my Artist in a commercial Phosphoric acid solution. The patina that developed was even across the spine, bevels, and hollow.

I conclude that my Artist is not nickle plated.

Jonathan

Its pretty clear that there was pitting in the center of the blade. If you polished out the black and pitting, and did not see any evidence of layering, then it is not plated. Simple enough. =)

I polished out the black that was there mostly by using a cloth and some Autosol. However what remains could not be polished out by hand or dremel it seems. What can I use to get rid of it? It seems at a macroscopic level to look like residue from something which was stuck to it (think peeling off a really sticky sticker), but under the scope it seems to be microscopic holes. Can this be polished out with something like steel wool?

Haha, well done! So maybe I am not up to scratch on my chemistry but why do you conclude that it is not nickel plated just because of the even development of patina?

Nickel is much less reactive than carbon steel. Since the patina was uniform the material is likely uniform in composition. I am not a chemist or a metallurgist but this test is good enough for me.

Jonathan