Curious freaks of steel, St-Louis Republic 1890.
Attachment 124213
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Curious freaks of steel, St-Louis Republic 1890.
Attachment 124213
Now I know what I have been doing wrong!:)
Reminds me of what my Grandfather told me when I was 10 years old .... "Believe half of what you see, and nothing that your read." :rofl2:
That's why I always store my razors in a North/South fashion. That way the grain is less adversely effected by the magnetic pull of the Earths poles. I am also very cautious to assure that they always, when not in use, are on their backs, spline up such that the gravity will allow the grain of the metal to "relax" so to speak, and not be pulled down toward the main body of the blade, or, even worse, to the side
Be careful you are aligning with the magnetic poles not the ones on the map! I have also been using a pyramid of styptic pencils that have shown positive results.Quote:
Originally Posted by donv
For sure, I meant to say magnetic North! The pyramid is a good idea, I might give that a try. So many things to consider!Quote:
Originally Posted by 32t
Ah,this never crossed my mind. ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by donv
i kept trying to tell myself it wasnt RAD and that i keep buying razors while my other ones sit to repair them self !!! now i have proof if anyone ask !!
Thats interesting, so let me see if I get it right, you store your razors spine up, like in a 7 day set box, in a north-south fashion?? Im not shure if that would make a difference but as we are talking about the finest grade of steel then it has some sense. I will start doing itQuote:
Originally Posted by donv
The degree of incredulity toward this old article is surprising.
May I ask why?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tierdaen
Especially when there is zero facts to support that theoryQuote:
Originally Posted by Tierdaen
Spoken like an "Expert"!
There is the fact that steel expand and contract, perhaps someone with a powerful microscope could take picture of an edge and let it sit for a couple months and see if the edge changed.Quote:
Originally Posted by mainaman
Sounds like a "fluid steel" razor! He must have gotten that off the internet. OR an old barber told him! ;)
Well the article mentioned the legendary Damascus, which no one actually knows the method of making, or the composition of the final product, and then specifies Swedish steel as the material that is going through this metamorphosis. Perhaps the guys that are paying the high dollars for the Heljestrands know something we don't know ........ :p
Wasn't defending the article...my comment was just an observation of the community. Sorry for the ambiguity.Quote:
Originally Posted by 32t
That article is talking about mechanical prearrangement of the structure of the steel, I am not sure that is possible on the level we are working with a razor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
I am not sure what is meant by grain of the steel, for me that would be carbide structure, how does that change orientation with stropping I am not sure. The one thing that changes for sure is the direction of the serrations on the edge but that to me is not the same as changing the structure of the steel. As far as thermal expansion, the temperature range here is practically non-existent, I am very confident stropping does not add big temp change on the edge to change the temper.
A blade can get a lot hotter while buffing it than when stropping it and the temper does not change until certain temperature is reached.
If you want to calculate thermal expansion, take a bevel of witch 0.5mm, the linear expansion over 10C raise will be 0.5 microns, and a volume expansion will be 1.5 microns . I used a coefficient of linear/volume expansion for carbon steel (unspecified) from wikepedia. When stropping the temperature at the bevel is not going up by 10C that is for certain, the speed and pressure of the process is not enough for that to happen. So in the end you are looking at insignificant temperature changes to make any difference in the edge and how it feels on the cheek.
I would appreciate if someone versed in steels chime in and let is know what happens, may be Mike will be able to enlighten us.
Say is this the thread where we talk about which end of the razor is our favorite?
Maybe I'm being simplistic, but considering the time in which that article was published, I am under the impression the writer, if he is at all serious, is talking about a phenomenon that can be seen with the naked eye. So IMO he is referring to the grind lines of the steel rather than the microscopic structure that we cannot see without some sort of high end laboratory microscopes. I am thinking it is a tongue in cheek article because I can't imagine that his theory is possible ? Just IMHO ..... :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by mainaman
Personally I'm hoping for a new forum category: Freaks of Steel, with a lot of fascinating inexplicable razor related info.
Then the threat to the validity of this claim is observational error. I suspect too much alcohol both pre- and post-observation. Since the steel grain was oriented in the same direction a month later it's safer to assume that the razor did not change much since steel is a fairly stable material once hardened. Therefore the problem is in the observer. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Or it was a slow news day
I think the term, 'freaks of steel', defines many of us ..... :gaah:Quote:
Originally Posted by WW243
Or perhaps "Freaks of Razors".Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Attachment 124238
A "curious" bunch one way or the other ..... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
When you stop being curious, you're not old, you're dead!Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
I didn't mean that we have curiosity ...... rather that to others we are the curiosity ...... :chapeauQuote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
HAHA!Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
You are right, I asked for shaving soap in a shop today, she asked what type of razor I use.
When I said straight razor the whole shop went quiet!
This theory has been mention in many many occasion on different articles, thats what got my curiousity going, and as Lemur stated im not old nor dead!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Blue
Well speaking for myself, I correspond to one of those two adjectives ...... only the first one thankfully ..... :wQuote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
That is a very interesting article and if true another reason to rotate your razors!
For those inclined, grains are a large focus in metals from an engineering perspective. See: Crystallite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
However these grains tend to be very small and, as said, powerful microscopes are needed to see them. And they really don't have an overall 'alignment', nor can I see them magically realigning themselves without some applied driving force. I would be inclined to think that, if the writers have any clue what they are really talking about, it was about some macroscopically observable phenomenon.
That would explain your "User Title"Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
Yeah, it ain't JimmyBC ......... :gaah:Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
Your post just made me think of the 'old wives's tale' that a razor needs to rest for 24 hours, or however long, after shaving. I wonder if that myth didn't originate from the article, or others like it, in the OP ? Giving the razor time to realign itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScienceGuy
