Thread: Is it better, pits or no pits?

Ok so for everyone out there that has restored a razor i would like to hear your feed back on how you feel about pitting? I have been working on a few razors and some come out great well others just not as nice. One of the big reasons is when i got them they where in bad shape and have deep pits but i brought them up to a shine and saved as much of the worn away engravings as i could. But they still just dont look as clean as i would like, so my question is is it better just to leave the pitting and hope to find someone to buy it that likes pitting or keep working on it till its all gone and looks like new again? Im sure some people like a little bit of it to remember that is is an old razor and others don't, another problem is if going to deep to remove pitting or scratches you run a higher risk of messing up, so it it just better to leave it and give it a shine or try for more? What do you think?

If not on the edge.pits are no problem,are just unsightly is all,I would never own a blade with pits but thats just me.
Have you ever measured the depth of pits with a dial indicator? I have,most on razors are about .002/.003 in deep,thats a lot of metal to remove in the real world.

It depends on the razor and where they are located. Just remember, the more pits you take off the more likely you are to cause a break or crack. The only must-remove pits are in the edge of the razor.

They are cheap when you buy them with pits , they will be cheap when you sell them with pits. Razors sanded and polished to death may sell but in my opinion that is just not right. You can do damage to a blade that can not be seen just trying to get rid of pits for appearance reasons. Search for ruined temper and micro chips etc. Comments on over buffed razors.

Generally I am pretty picky about getting every last little fly spec when I am restoring a razor. However I have not restored any razors with particularly deep pits. I do have a W&B Diamond Edge that was restored by someone else that has some fairly deep pits that I have no intention of taking out. I do all of my pit and corrosion removal by hand sanding. While I like to be picky I do have limitations on how long I'm willing to go at it on a single razor. I do with them around. I'll work on one for a while and then another. I am also in n hurry, I have other razors to shave with, and sometimes time to kill.

Originally Posted by jdoc

so my question is is it better just to leave the pitting and hope to find someone to buy it that likes pitting or keep working on it till its all gone and looks like new again?

Are you restoring to sell, or for personal use ? Many people love the challenge of doing the restoration work themselves.
This way there are no nasty surprises.

I think that after decades of neglect you can't expect some razors to be brought to a mirror finish without the risk of wrecking them.

Personally I like a bit of pitting on some (only some !) of my razors as long as it's away from the edge..
Gives them a bit of character when the bathroom light "catches" them at a certain angle.

Bongo.

i've just started collecting/restoring razors and have been looking for razors in need of cleaning and restoration. some have turned out pretty nice and shiny while others have remaining pits. none have come out with the mirror finish one sees in the custom builds a restorations part of the forum. While they look great, i doubt weather i'll ever get one to that point. It doesn't really bother me. I'd probably worry constantly about it getting scratched or stained anyway.

I suppose it depends on the market you are aiming at, a really highly polished razor with some sort of shiney scales would look really pretty to the untrained eye on eBay, so people who just want a razor to own one would be more likely to buy it, but if the blade has effectively been worn out in the process of polishing is it morally right to sell it? Well as a working razor anyway.
I am not much of an aesthete though I do appreciate pretty things, I would prefer to see the age of something.
I think it's a bit like replacing scales for no other reason than you can.

To me there is no physical difference to light pitting vs etching on a blade. As long as it doesnt affect the cutting edge. Old razors are gonna have wear marks of time. Just like old razor users. Sure an unblemished old blade is nice to look at, but sometimes it wont shave as well.

I would agree with the previous posts so long as the pitting is not along the blade edge you should be ok. I bought a few cheap straights on eBay about a year ago to practice honing. The pitting away from the blade was more visual and didn't effect it's performance after it was honed. The pitting on the blade edge was a whole different thing, even after honing when looking at the edge through an inexpensive 40X-25MM jewelers loupe, the edge looked like a rip saw. Not something you would want to shave with.