Thread: Honing problem on restore.

I would certainly listen to Brad and Glen here; make sure you are using a loupe or some type of magnification when you do these kinds of questionable blades. That pitting may not stand out like a sore thumb, but still give you grief none-the-less. Since you did breadknife the blade, go to youtube look up gssixgun's video on breadknifing a blade, watch it til' your eyes bleed then attempt another bevel set after checking the edge under magnification. Those videos helped me immensely; heck I even did the whole thing WHILE I watched the videos just to be sure. Just a suggestion.

Did a bit more honing and I'm starting to find good steel but only spots of it. There might be hope for this one. Also, lol yes I sharpened it at a 22.5 degree angle to see if it would take an edge period, because it wasn't taking an edge at a normal razor angle. Just a little experiment to confirm my suspicion that the steel was damaged. It's also possible I gave up to early on the bevel so I'll keep that in mind, but I don't think that's the problem.

I have been there with a Bengall I honed. It took about an hour or more of honing on 1K to finally get to the point that the edge wouldn't crumble when you get close to a set bevel. Keep at it and I hope it works out. It is maddening though.

My experiences with some razors is that, unless I look at the bevel/edge with 60X or higher, I miss the many tiny holes eaten through the blade and bevel. Many older razors were used hard and put away wet. Some were never used again; and that is where the trouble comes. Some do not show the pitting and holes at lesser power of 'scope. Most of them I have saved but had to do a lot of 600grit honing to get to good steel.
As a guide:
If a razor has the look of rusty fogging it may be not worth the effort. That means the corrosion has followed the inter crystalline spaces and the whole area is swiss cheese.
Some of the worst brands for that are HESS, Bresduck, C-MON, and some others that used lightly tinted transparent or cracked ice scales. Some of them used a poor quality wedge and the end of the blade may be corroded.
Just my take after quite a few 'bay and antique store razors.
~Richard
An idea of what the corrosion may look like:

Anytime you buy a blade from the bay that has rust all over it, it's a big gamble. It's like surgery, you never fully know what's going on til' you get in there and poke around.

Mystery solved, I honed away for a good while and kept finding nothing but Swiss Cheese. The Swiss cheese portions are obvious without magnification in the right light too and they run the entire blade length. It's to bad though, I really wanted to fix this one because I inherited it and it has sentimental value. Have to say though, inheriting 4 razors and finding that 3 out of 4 are just fine is pretty good. I'll consider this a good learning experience and take it as that!

Just want to warn you!! I did one that looked exactly the same, down to the cracked scale. I hone it perfectly. And while I was getting ready to strop it The Scales Fell Apart Into 6 Pieces. Be careful! You may be replacing them real soon!

Are you sure you did not overheat the blade when you removed the pitting?

Hey 3 out of 4 isn't bad at all. If anything it was good practice, and now you know what to look for next time, and know how good steel shouldn't react to honing.