rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
The steel of this SR is high carbon with a hardness of 59 RHC. It is sharpened to tree-topping chest hair and is lapped very lightly about 50 passes on a 0.1u diamond-pasted hanging balsa strop after each use. This SR has been used for about 15 x 3-pass shaves since I set the bevel and sharpened the edge using "The Method".
After the bevel set and sharpening, I inspected the full length of the edge under a USB microscope and all was good. After that, I inspect the edge by eye only before each shave and have found nothing wrong.
This morning before clean-leather stropping and shaving, I decided to use a 40X loupe to insect the edge. I then faintly detected a chip at about mid length of the edge. I further inspected this chip with the USB microscope and found this:
That big chip is 27u deep x 170u long (0.001" x 0.006"). The rest of the edge looked like this:
I then stropped the SR and shaved with it - 3 passes WTG, XTG and ATG. The shave was perfect as normal, only some very light tugging in tough spots when ATG. I then gave the edge 50 laps on the 0.1u hanging balsa and check again under the USB microscope. There was no discernable change to the chip.
I am happy with the way this edge is shaving now. Should I worry/do something about this chip or just forget about it and let it eventually wear out of the edge?
After the bevel set and sharpening, I inspected the full length of the edge under a USB microscope and all was good. After that, I inspect the edge by eye only before each shave and have found nothing wrong.
This morning before clean-leather stropping and shaving, I decided to use a 40X loupe to insect the edge. I then faintly detected a chip at about mid length of the edge. I further inspected this chip with the USB microscope and found this:
That big chip is 27u deep x 170u long (0.001" x 0.006"). The rest of the edge looked like this:
I then stropped the SR and shaved with it - 3 passes WTG, XTG and ATG. The shave was perfect as normal, only some very light tugging in tough spots when ATG. I then gave the edge 50 laps on the 0.1u hanging balsa and check again under the USB microscope. There was no discernable change to the chip.
I am happy with the way this edge is shaving now. Should I worry/do something about this chip or just forget about it and let it eventually wear out of the edge?