I apologize for being flippant with my use of the term "finish". Passivation is more accurately a post-machining treatment to restore the natural corrosion resistance of stainless steel. Like Plan said, it removes impurities and surface contaminants deposited during the machining process. To my understanding the part shouldn't change appearance at all unless the surface contaminants were obscuring the natural appearance of the steel. The black oxide razors are passivated also and then treated with black oxide. Black oxide converts the surface molecules of the steel into black oxide. The wear and patina is caused as regular use slowly removes some of these molecules over time. The color will lighten and might even eventually allow the natural stainless steel color to peek through as the black molecules above it are removed, although I'm unsure that holding the razor in hand is enough to cause this. The razor on my homepage shows some stainless peeking through around the corners because that razor was dropped and repeatedly placed on decidedly abnormal razor surfaces like bricks, rocks, and concrete. Keep in mind this wear is not like flaking or chipping. Plan pretty much covered it, but here is a useful link: http://www.delstar.com/passivating.html
Your SOTD with the Blackbird are so much better than mine lol. Mine are just a constant rehash of the same 3-5 soaps and 2 brushes. And there you are with that insanely cool mug and soap stick. Way classier than me .
I'd say the Blackbird holds its own quite well in any photo. Lovely piece of machining - and I understand that they are getting even better
They really are. I thought the earlier batch was beautifully machined. The new batch is even better. The dimensions are the same, but the machining finish is just vastly better.
New review just posted from a local shaver on the Nook. Since I used the dreaded K word to fund it, I don't know if it will be taken down or not. http://shavenook.com/showthread.php?tid=36828
Hey Shane thank you for the info. Reading up about what is going into the production process has been both enlightening and fun. Which got me thinking... Any chance of getting some pics of the behind the scenes ?
Pictures? Ha. We were promised video. Time to lean on the machinist, Shane. Break out the thumbscrews and hot irons if you have to...
Haha yea I'm hoping a video comes through. With how difficult it was to find a machinist willing to work with me and what a great job these guys are doing, I'm going to refrain from jumping on them too hard about it. I'll chat with them probably tomorrow and see where we stand on that. I should also be getting the soap tomorrow!
No soap tomorrow . Had a little snafu with the wrong shipping address. Hopefully we can successfully reroute it so I can get a shave in with this stuff next week.
From Robert, the artisan of Local Gent Shaving Co.: "It a combination of black amber and pine with a touch of lavender and smoky spice." Sounds nice.
For some reason, the image that popped into my head reading that scent description was of a tar paper roofed bordello in a shanty town, burning to the ground. After re-reading the scent description, this time without the accompanying mental image--it sounds great! Looking forwards to trying it out.
Arghh... "This plugin is not supported." I'll have to wait until I get home and update flash player to watch it.
