Unusual crack in Gold Dollar tang!

[Slash McCoy]

Unusual crack in Gold Dollar tang. See pics.




top and bottom views of the tang. pics by iphone so best I could do.

At first I thought it was just a witness line, but it seems to go deep and it isn't straight. What could have caused that? Surely not HT/quenching. Maybe a forging artifact? Could this be layered pattern welded steel of some kind? I don't get it. It extends into the back of the spine as well. No sign of it in the hollow or at/near the edge. I don't think I will be able to call this a premium blade, and the work is half done. Darn. Should still be a decent razor. I don't think it will fall apart while shaving if it didn't fall apart on a 3" belt sander with 35 grit belt LOL! Or the 30k rpm dremel! But it is still obvious and I have to call it a flaw.

Any ideas? Anybody seen this before?

 

[oakeshott]

Not in a razor but have seen dozens of cracks like that in high carbon steels. Essentially a stress fracture. Cracks like that can continue to propagate until they are relieved. Several things could have caused that.

 

[Brooksie967]

Do you have to use that much pressure when honing on sandpaper? hehe

 

[Seraphim]

Cheap, Chinese piece of junk obviously!

 

[Slash McCoy]

Junk or not, it is in a batch of 9 (once, there were 10 LOL!) and I will continue to process it along with its classmates and see where it goes. I suspect that it will hone and shave just fine. I just won't be able to call it a premium razor.

BTW after doing some more sanding on the back of the spine, I see that the crack extends up the spine to the end. Not evident anywhere in the hollow grind or at the edge, though. Very strange. I doubt that it happened during quench. Usually if there is a problem, the blade will shatter or crack at or near the edge. I have never seen nor heard of a crack running along the center plane of the razor along the entire length from monkeytail to nose. I think it has something to do with a forging step. They probably forge the blades to rough shape to save steel, since they do a fairly high volume. Stock removal from start to finish would be wasteful.

And yes, Brooksie, pressure is needed. I use half my bodyweight at the 60 grit stage. Progressively less as I increase the grit numbers. No sense taking a month to shape one razor when I can do 10 in two or three days. But I didn't do that.

 

[Brooksie967]

200lbs of pressure on a cheap chinese hunk of steel? Woah

 

[Seraphim]

210?

 

[Seraphim]

Slash, you are now able to throw around some fancy, obscure Japanese terminology!

What you have there would be deemed "kizu" in katana terminology.

See here:
http://japaneseswordindex.com/kizu.htm

looks to me like a non fatal "ware"...

 

[Gamma]

Looks like a corrosion stress crack.
Either that or its where the reclaimed steel from melted tuna cans meets the 'metal' from smelted headlight bezels.
One or the other or maybe a combo of both.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Slash, you are now able to throw around some fancy, obscure Japanese terminology!

What you have there would be deemed "kizu" in katana terminology.

See here:
http://japaneseswordindex.com/kizu.htm

looks to me like a non fatal "ware"...

Have you been playing with Doc's Jnats?

 

[bongofury]

Don't know if this is quite relevant but this pic is a 100 y.o. razor with a "split" from the end of the tang.
Hasn't affected the blade at all.