Because if you use 2 different steels they heat treat differently and will wear differently.
What type of steel did they use on your seven razors?
Do Damascus blades keep a good edge.
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Nice hand fan!
I love it when Japanese sellers include these extra items.
Mine sent me an assorted abrasives (like a dozen of 'em) in these tiny little vials when I ordered a nagura.
OoOoOoO. A tokkyuu, noice.
Please, let us know how it goes!!!
From Tim's website,
What is different about Zowada Razors?
1. All Damascus is made "in house" by Tim Zowada.
A. Tim has over 30 years experience making Damascus steel.
B. All the Damascus steel is made from new material, purchased from Carpenter or Crucible Steel.
C. Our Damascus is a combination of two tool steels, O1 and L6, to provide a uniformly hard, wear resistant edge.
D. All Damascus is normalized after forging and spherodize annealed.
"Uniformly hard and wear resistant edge"
A toothy edge would not sell well in the razor world.
You would have to look up the current Boker,Wacker,and Thiers Issard. As I recall. Mine are all fairly new but I use them all. The Wacker came from private collection in Germany New. All different process for each maker.
I have made 8 blades from O1/ L6 Damascus..And have the Highest respect for Tim Zowada...O1/L6 are Vary similar tool steel but still will wear differently...I am sure a highly polished edge that does not see any acid may not feel toothy...but it's still going to wear differently.
The effect you describe could perhaps happen if you use 2 extremely different steels. But the steels that go in PWS are pretty similar but for the nickel content. They have the same hardness and will wear the same, or at least not different in any way you should notice. When PWS is made, the carbon diffuses between the different layers and after folding 2 or 3 times, the carbon will be homogenous, as proven in a research paper by Howard Clark and Dr. Verhoeven.
Howard gave me a copy years ago. They basically took 2 steels with very different carbon content, layered it, and took a sample after every round of stacking and welding, after which Dr. Verhoeven analyzed the samples at the university to see what happened. After enough time at welding heat, the carbon hade homogenized throughout the entire billet.
If you claim that they will wear differently, is that because you have seen this under a microscope?
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I have to agree.
If the steels did wear differently in any noticeable way the edge would indeed get toothy or even be toothy from the get go.
Zowada razors are renowned for incredible, smooth keen edges.
I'm sure the big makers using it like Boker are the same.
It just doesn't make sense to make a razor that would be toothy in nature as this would feel scratchy on the face.
If it feels smooth, then for all intents and purposes, its not a toothy edge and the wear difference would be insignificant.
Yes I have...On the edge of a Chef knife, not a Razor.
My only PWS razor, a TZ, you can see the un etched steel at the lower end of the blade. That is not the bevel, the bevel is smaller than that. Can barely see it with the naked eye.
It holds an edge just fine, I probably have about 30-35 shaves on it, no issues.
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My only PWS razor, a TZ, you can see the un etched steel at the lower end of the blade. That is not the bevel, the bevel is smaller than that. Can barely see it with the naked eye.
It holds an edge just fine, I probably have about 30-35 shaves on it, no issues.
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This is key to etching.
The area unetched is far enough up the bevel that by the time the edge gets there you will have honed below the etching and it will be problem free.
That is indeed key. Way back I sold a lot of razor blanks that were essentially finished razors at 120 grit, with people turning them into their personal razor by doing all the sanding, scales, etc. Custom razor on a budget, type of thing. Because anyone with restoration experience can take it from there.
Eventually I made a couple of razors that needed etching and sold them like that. I only did a couple and then made a rule for myself that I will never again sell unfinished razors that need etching. Because despite explaining how to protect the edge and why, I'd get mails about crumbling edges and people saying they'd etched them 'like they saw bigname smith do on youtube'. And then I'd have to explain that a razor is not a bowie and having to spend a lot of time and effort walking the user through the steps to fix it.
