Thread: Tale of the Ugly Duckling (aka intentionally rusted razor)

Soooooo.... a little while back I got a Special #1 off the bay for miraculously less than $20 or something.. When I got it the blade was fine, hone wear straight and even, bevel didn't have chips or anything. Anyways... the scales were a little boring so I ripped them off (remember that thread?), then the blacking on the tang was very thin/patchy so I maased that off. But I missed it. So... I decided to learn rust bluing. And so I rust blued the whole razor. Now it is all done and I have a pitch black Special #1. Note, the finish has some uniform slight pitting because at the beginning I left it two days without carding. however its okay cus its uniform and makes it a satin finish.
Pictures (before):

RUSTED OMG OH NO!!!!

BLACK!!!! AWESOME!

WOAH.

I should do that, that's hawsome

did you ever document your process? I'd be really interested to see exactly how this is done, and what it does to the edge holding ability (if anything). does this cause any edge damage that you can tell?

According to Mike Blue it shouldn't change the steel at all, its just a patina (albeit a very durable tick patina that is part of the steel itself). From my initial observations, it will pit the blade if it gets away from you, and that may cause the swiss cheese effect which is what I'm really worried about. HOWEVER... if you did it more carefully, its definitely safe. I'll post my procedure later, but in essence the process I did was rust, card (sand basically), rust, card, rust, card, rust card boil rub. I think, if one were more patient (its not that I wasn't patient I just didn't realise) it seems it may be better to go rust card boil rust card boil.... rust card boil rub. And card it more than I did. I think thats what let the rust get away from me. The whole process took me about a week I wanna say? Maybe a little less?

I'll post all the details later though.

The other nice thing is if you do it right (which I think I did chemically, just the overall aesthetic is not perfect- ie the black finish is right, the pitting is wrong) the blade is now rust/water proof.