Pins splitting around the mushroom top

[dnjrboy]

Everyone,

I pinned together a razor last night and left a little bit more of the pin hanging out each side of the scale than I normally do. I managed to get a nice mushroom head on the pins and got them snugged down. But when I look at it under 10x magnification (jewellers loupe) I see that the very edges of the mushroom head have split. I haven't noticed this before on the other razors I have pinned.

Could this be from having too much pin material sticking out of the scales before I begin pinning? I'm using stainless steel rod.

[cannonfodder]

You left the rod to long. Stainless will split/crack like that. Brass will also but is more plyable than stainless so you can get away with a bit more. You could try slowing down, less force on the pinning. It will take longer to pin, but the metal may stretch more before it splits. As a general rule, if you cant see it close up it is not going to be a problem. Using a loupe at 10x to see them means they are very superficial but the pins could loosen over time more than normal.

[Bruno]

Yup. This is exactly why it happened.
I don't know if you have a stone chisel, but if you do and you used it quite a bit, you'll notice that the top will mushroom over and split around the edge, because it simply doesn't stretch that far.