Thread: A question for custom-razor makers

Has anyone here experimented with tungsten carbide? I've heard that it's the hardest metal on Earth (or maybe it was Alloy 1090?), but I wonder how well it could be made into a razor.

This is purely speculatory, unless someone wants to try it or has done so already - I'm really curious.

Thanks all,

Rich

It's a good question. I'll quote Wikipedia, "Tungsten carbide is approximately two times stiffer than steel, with a Young's modulus of approximately 550 GPa,[2] and is much denser than steel or titanium. It is comparable with corundum (α-Al2O3) or sapphire/ruby in hardness and can only be polished and finished with abrasives of superior hardness such as cubic boron nitride and diamond, in the form of powder, wheels, and compounds."

My recommendation is to stick with steels in some form, even a super-steel that has just a little tungsten in it. Personally, just to have a lot of fun with the Honemeisters who live here, I would make a razor out of pure tungsten carbide and pass it around to them. The look on their faces and the conversations with them afterward would bring joy to my heart. The bill I'd get for having to replace their hones would not be that much fun though. Let's say that tungsten carbide would more likely hone the hone than submit to the hone, as it were.

Making razors is one thing. Thinking about the fellow who follows you in the process is another.

Ah...

We've been here before.
The short of it is this: there are NO requirements on a straight razor. in terms of tensile strength, abrasion resistance, etc. The only thing that matters is the crystal structure which has to be very fine grained and even. Hard enough to take a fine edge, but other than that, it doesn't really matter.

S30V, M4, etc are all wonderful steels, meant for applications that require a sharp edge, but most of all need to withstand brutal usage. They will be sharp, but not quite as sharp as plain steel. Yet people flock to the super steels because 'they are better' than boring regular steel. My advice: don't, unless you do it just for curiosity's sake. super steels are wonderful for various purposes, but all those wonderful properties don't change the fact that for plain, low stres edged tools, simple carbon steel still rules the roost.

Last year we had a guy here who spent a good amount of money, getting a blade maker to make a couple of customs from various steels like M4. They were much too hard to hone properly, and in the end the shave was sub par.

Besides, materials aside, I find that a proper understanding of the geometry of a razor and reproducible heat treating processes are much, much more important for the quality of a razor than the 'exoticness' of the steel.

Thank you Mike and Bruno for answering Rich's question. Just spent an hour with him, in person, showing him some things and he will make a fine member here. A great young man! You should understand that Rich is in training to be an engineer's engineer.
Naturally, He needed answers!
Fine and friendly answers. Thanks!

Yup! Thanks again, Tom, and thanks to you guys for the responses.

Something I thought of on my drive back to campus: with a tungsten carbide blade, I knew you'd have to use a diamond abrasive to hone, but even chromium oxide couldn't stand up against that razor.

@Mike: I guess I thought it would be funnier before thinking about getting the bill - haha.

Well, you could use DMT hones to hone a tungsten carbide blade. DMT and a lot of elbow grease

I'm still waiting to see a ceramic razor...

Originally Posted by EisenFaust

I'm still waiting to see a ceramic razor...

That's been tried as well, a couple of years ago.
It was a bear to hone, and the report was that is was very scratchy during shaving.
Because of the brittleness of ceramic, the edge develops lots of microchips.

Being the engineering type myself i chose to get a TC wedding ring. It has stood up to some pretty rough treatment and has not even the slightest scratch. I can only imagine the effort it would take to hone a blade made from it. on the up side you would probably never need to do it again.