Thread: Crumbling edge

I have a nice 5/8's shoulderless razor. A W.B. Co. Toledo full hollow, made in Gemany! I have gotten ten to twenty great shaves with this little beauty! Yesterday as I was stropping her I lifted the spine on one of my passes. Damn!! So I go back to linen just to make sure and back to leather again. As I am shaving I notice my blade isn't the same. It's shaving me alright but I seem to be missing a hair here and there that I don't normally miss, also the blade is not exactly pulling but something was not quite right, so I stropped mid shave and noticed a slight improvement, but still not right. As I am wiping the blade before I put it away I notice the light reflecting off the edge wasn't right, so I whipped out my trusty magnifying glass and find about a half an inch of edge near the toe is crumbling! I have never had this happen after so many fine shaves and have only had it happen once on an old beat up W & B after honing! does anyone have any ideas what might have gone wrong?

My first guess was that the edge is overhoned, but, if that was the case then it would not have shaved well from the beginning. That narrows it down to an oxidized, rusted, weak edge. It sounds like you did not get all of the old edge removed when you first honed it. Go back to a 4000 grit and hone off the old edge, 50-100 laps, then back up thru the finer grits. You really do need a 30X handheld microscope for this stuff.

Just my two cents,

Thanks for the response! I figured it was something along the lines of a weak edge due to previous oxidation, and even before I posted I had a game plan in mind! What I was looking for was whether it could have been something different than my suspicions, and whether this was a common occurrence among vintage razors, as I have never seen this in all my years of using straights.

For vintage razors my general practice is to assume the old edge is oxidized. I use a 30X scope and if the steel is weak it will usually show itself at the 8000 grit level.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by randydance062449

For vintage razors my general practice is to assume the old edge is oxidized. I use a 30X scope and if the steel is weak it will usually show itself at the 8000 grit level.

Hope this helps,

+1 for Randy's comments. Sometimes you just have to remove a lot of steel to be sure you have the good stuff.