OK. So I have this razor, I think it's from a a Japanese company (I can almost, ALMOST, make out the word PEACE on the tang...hollow ground spike point, 5/8, bone scales...got it in Japan. Any ideas?).

I'm trying to clean up some pitting/staining and having a HECK of a time. It's so weird...I started at 180 and took a lot of the darker staining off. Then, the razor seemed to just stop reacting to the sanding in predictable ways.

Like I said, I'm using 180 grit Wet Dry paper...when I stand with a fresh piece, the razor will show new scratch marks for the first three passes or so, then suddenly, the paper will start polishing and soon the razor is shiny. SHINY! Not all scratched up, not covered in 180 grit sanding lines, but bright and polished looking! And the stains I'm trying to remove (really faint ones, looking almost like dirty oil smeared on the blade) haven't shown a bit of change in nearly an hour at 180 grit. I dropped down to 120 and had the same experience--initial sanding, then polishing, no change in the stains. I've tried wet AND dry, I've tried circles and back and forth, different angles, and always the same effect. Initially there's some lines, then quickly it turns to polishing.

I'm almost ready to give up...what could be causing this? Super hard steel? Super bad steel? El nino?