Thread: Restoration Failure. Advice Needed!

I'm relatively new to shaving with a straight (although I have been shaving with a DE for several years and have read a lot on straight razor shaving). I recently decided to try my hand at restoring a few old blades that I purchased at the local antique shop. The one I started with is a W.H. Morely & Sons. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it when I started, but it had some active rust, and a lot of pitting (probably not the ideal restore, but for $11 I figured it might be a good one to try my hand at). I started hand sanding with 220 grit, and was noticing a lot of improvement. Tonight, disaster struck! I noticed a strange mark forming lengthwise about half way between the spine and the edge. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a crack! A fracture had formed and with a little flexing of the blade, I could tell it went all the way through. If I applied enough force, it would snap in half. I realize that this blade is lost, but I would like to use this as a learning experience. I have a few theories as to why this may have happened: 1) I sanded too much metal
off and wore through the blade (I had about 5 hours of sanding on the blade), 2) I was sanding on a piece of cardboard, and maybe it was too flexible. My applying pressure to the blade as I sanded put too much stress on the edge, 3) the blade was no good to begin with. I tend to think 2 is the reason.

I would love to hear your thoughts on:

1) Why the blade may have cracked like this.
2) How I can prevent this on future razors I restore (especially the Dubl Duck I bought at the same time as the Morely)
3) If the crack hadn't developed, should I have kept sanding? You can see in the pictures below that there is still some black pit marks. I was trying to get rid of all of them before moving up a grit (based on the reading I did on here before starting this project). Should I have kept going?

I appreciate any help/advice you can provide!



Attachment 140195Attachment 140196Attachment 140197Attachment 140198