I'm going to try making a razor out of D2. It's got large carbides so I don't know how it perform, which is the reason why I want to make a razor out of it. If D2 works then N690 should as well.
I've made a razor out of AEB-L at 62-63 rc. It shaves as good as my Friodur, which is the best razor I've ever used. No surprise as this steel is especially designed for razors. Some say that commercial stainless steel razors are made out of AEB-L, some say 440C but AEB-L is more likely. You need cryo-quench to reach above 59 rc however.
O-1 is not brittle. 63 rc is typical for an O-1 razor, and has higher toughness than it does at 60 rc (look at Crucible's test data). TI's Silver Steel is 65 rc and nobody complains about brittleness, just that it can take a while to sharpen. Brittleness usually comes from improper tempering rather than from the steel being too hard.
The performance of a razor is also related to grain size. I've found some razors of the same steel and hardness shave noticeably better than others. If you harden the steel, do a partial spherodizing cycle at 1200F for 2 hours, then heat treat as usual, you get a finer grain size than heat treating from the fully annealed condition. Do a test heat treat first, break the steel and look at the grain with a microscope to determine what heat treat gives the finest grain.