Valuable lesson

I've been working on a fun old bow razor (W&B) for a while, finally got the scales finished and polished, razor polished and pinned, taped it up and soaked my hone. Grabbed my microscope and discovered a micro hairline in the blade. It is micro indeed, I'm having a very hard time seeing it with the naked eye even when I know where it's at, but actually runs close to 3/16 in length if I managed to measure it correctly. Luckily it is close to the toe, I can shorten the blade 1/4 and be in undamaged steel so that's what I'll do. Very close to total loss tho, had the crack been close/closer to the heel.

The worst part is, I know I've seen the veterans here say check the blade first, guess I don't learn easy from other ppl's errors :D

Just posting in case someone else is a faster learner than I am. From now on, I'll make sure to check bevel thoroughly before I start any restores.

Definitely, if you have a microscope, or any other means of magnification, then it's always a good idea to check out every blade before you do anything with it.

Yep, I did the same thing a long time ago. I'd put a good few hours of work into it before the crack made itself obvious, but I'm sure it would have been there all along. Good news is, mine was near the heel and I ground it out and saved the razor.

Good thing you noticed. That's what matters the most at the moment.