I can tell you what I found out from a metallurgist testing three different razors.

Here were the razors and results. All three were low alloy straight steels.

Wade and Butcher hollow ground 6/8. Hardness 58/59. It had some retained austenite and improved 1 point after cryo treating. The steel was a straight steel with no significant alloys.

Case razor. Being one of the better American razors, I thought it would make for a good test. This had a good heat treat and temper tested 60/61 hrc and had a fine grain. It had very little retained austenite.

Puma. This was the best of the three coming in at 61/62 hrc with a very fine grain.


For all intents and purposes, they were pretty much the same steel with a carbon content of around 1 percent. The differences seemed to be in the quality of the heat treatment, which is why I find some W&B razors to be outstanding and some just so-so and I belive this is because of the variation in heat treatment. the primary difference in feel aside from that between the razors seem may be more attributed to the grind and hardness than anything else. This shouldn't be surprising because what it takes to make an excellent blade is a very good grind at the right bevel for the heat treatment and hardness - and, of course, the quality of the heat treatment.

I've come to the opinion that high carbon steel is made best when heat treated one blade at a time with careful attention to detail, temperature, quench time... i.e. individually processing the steel to get as thorough a conversion to martensite as possible with the least possible stress to the blade.