Strange bubbly kind of blade surface

Attachment 178776

today i got a razor to hone from a fellow from a local forum. when i got it i saw (besides being worn a bit and having an ugly bent nick on the enge) that only 1 side had sth like pitting but not quite, the affected surface had some sort of bubbly surface,.. kind of made me think someone was trying something agressive in order to clean the rust (there i ssome deep pitting too)

there is no rust on it, no low grits grooves, no visible cell rust, the spine has only pitting on since someone probably honed it after this bubbly thing had ot hapen

any thoughts on what might be the cause of this?

Looks like that was made by a powered rotary coarse flap wheel or a wire brush.
~Richard

It looks like steel that has been overheated in the forging process - close to the temperature where it literally "burns". Highly unlikely that that is what it is, however. Due to the pitting close to the edge, it looks like it's not a keeper.

thanks guys,...

in my opinion it can't be a "steel burning" since the plstic scales would melt no matter the heat sink, it would definitely be on both sides (which it isn't) .. so I'm guessing it might be the wire brush (although no grit marks are present, so I was thinking about the chemical damage)

on the right side of this damage there are those tiny bubbles like formations on the steel (I'm guessing the pitting might be below)

no it's not a keeper, not even a buyer :D, but the colleague has bought it and would like to try straight razor shaving so i'll try and hone it,.. hope it'll hold the edge.. and if he'll like it he's going to orderr himself a new one (SRD probably)

Provided it hasn't been heat damaged or has corroded internally it looks as if it should hone up alright, but one never knows simply by looking at pictures. Good luck and we are here for you if needed.

Turn it into lemonade. Have you considered turning it into a stubby?? If so it can be an excellent starter razor for a newbie due to its shorter length and generous maneuverability . Just a thought before you throw in the towel. Is there and blade discoloration that would lead you to believe heat damage culprit ? I ask because it is single sided and doesn't extend the length of the blade. Just options to consider,but please keep us informed.

Looks like galvanic corrosion to me.
While you might be thinking it's an odd ball concept, I've seen it before on some other metal objects from bathrooms.
Consider this, older house with a tiled bathroom with a metal mesh behind the tile, a metal medicine cabinet inset in the tile wall, and the house electrically grounded to the pipes. Put something metal, like a razor, in the medicine cabinet and you've got 2 dissimilar metals and electricity, add water (steam) and you've got galvanic corrosion.

I learned at an early age to never touch the metal sink faucet and metal medicine cabinet at the same time. :)

I could be way off and probably am but....I remember having a blade with a similar looking problem, and as I recall it was Chromed or some marking on the tang implied that it might be (it was vintage). This was several years ago...
I know nothing about metal and it's treatments so correct me please if this would be a non-plausible application for this type of tool.

thanks for the effort

this is not my razor and it's not worth much in my opinion, it's not going to be restored, just honed for a tryout for its owner... the reason for my question was curiosity (lucky me i'm not a cat :D) .... speaking of whitch, due to criswilson10's explanation I'd say this looks like a feasable explantion to me (no discolorations, 1 sided effect).. a far as the honing is concerned it has a 1mm bent dent on the bevel so it'll probably have to get a bit kinfe-breaded..

I want to think the damage was done before the scales were put on. I might be wrong but if it was caused by heat, the scales may have become damaged too at the same time. I suggest doing it like ultrasoundguy2003 shortening it only if the owner would want so. it would turn out to be a good looking stubby if it still had enough material on it to do so or just hone it like it is. It might be ugly but it'll shave.

it honed nicely,.. so that's it :)

I can not make a shorty since it is not mine, additionally it wasn't ment for a restore, just for a honing for a guy that bought it and wanted to give it a go ..

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Originally Posted by miha

it honed nicely,.. so that's it :)

I can not make a shorty since it is not mine, additionally it wasn't ment for a restore, just for a honing for a guy that bought it and wanted to give it a go ..

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We're here to help those out in need & thank you for helping this guy out. It makes a difference in the attitude of everyone on here. I help out whenever I can, especially to beginners.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by miha

it honed nicely,.. so that's it :)

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That's what counts. :)

Looks to me like somebody used a really tight wire wheel against that blade. It may have had some rust and they decided to use the power tools on it. I've made similar marks on steel with wire wheels running at high rpm's and fairly heavy pressure applied to the wheel.

I have seen something similar back in the day. One of the best rust remover around was Navel Jelly. It was very good, but if it has not been removed or cleaned properly it would continue to attack the surface. I have never seen this on a razor, but it is similar to damage I have seen

It's just the result of simple corrosion, isn't it? Tiny metal particles in water provide a nucleus for the beginnings of corrosion, which goes under the surface and which usually looks much worse with the surface tarnish removed. Obviously, the edge has been in direct contact with water for some time for whatever reason - the insides of the scales were wet maybe, and the razor put away before it had time to dry. Razors are hollow ground to a greater or lesser extent, so it follows that a drop of water could sit on the upper surface and not the lower.

The 'bubbling' is just rusting - it provides a thin skin over the nascent pit, creating a micro-climate that propagates more pitting downwards into the metal while the top skins over and bubbles due to further waste products.

When I used to maintain my own vehicles, many times what looked at first glance like a greyish tarnish on a metal member often revealed a whole multitude of large and small pit-holes once a stripping wheel took the surface layer off.

Maybe its just me, but I have seen it on plenty of razors and on other steel implements - I just don't get what the mystery is...?

The extra dulling at the pin-holed area is there because some effort has been spent to remove some of the surface tarnish, with a wire wheel or similar as said above. A wasted effort if you ask me, but I suppose the razor is precious to the owner for some hard to fathom reason.

I would think that the least likely thing to have caused it is heat. Hint - with the amount of heat needed to cause that, it would not have honed properly - obvious, right?

Regards,
Neil

Yes. Like Neil said, while steel might look like that after it burnt (I've seen some truly awful cases of steel smallpox when I first started forging and didn't have a clue), this is very much not what you're looking at. If that part of the steel would have gotten hot enough for that to be burn pox, the rest of the blade would like similar, and the edge would have burnt away and what's left of the blade would have been covered in scales.