Thread: 01 Steel.

Here is another difference with the knife world: we are not really into wonder steel. Some people have worked with more exotic stuff, but for razors it is pointless. Complex steels all add properties that are important for knives, such as toughness, strength, etc. But razors don't need any of that because they are short and thick and the only thing they'll ever cut is human hair.

52100 for example is silly for razors. It's not bad steel. But in terms of hardness or keenness, it doesn't add anything over O1 because razors are not subject to much strain. However, the fact that 52100 is extremely wear resistant makes it much harder to grind. Ditto for niolox (SB1 I think it is called in the US). They're harder to work and don't add anything that is useful for razors.

In fact, a beginner here once paid a lot of money to have razors made from SB1, M42, and something else I think. We advised against it, but he reckoned that modern steels would be much better than O1 and 1084 for example and had them made, and then had senior people here test them. The conclusion was that they were almost impossible to get shaveready, and shaved very harsh.