Thread: Anyone tried exotic metals?

I'm curious if anyone's tried exotic metals for razors. My current fancy is Nickel-based alloys, particularly Nickel-Silver/German Silver Steel (Nickel-Copper-Zinc), which is cheaply available. Apparently the stuff resists plastic deformation (i.e. the edge should hold, even if quite fine) and is fairly hard and corrosion resistant.

A nickel-titanium or nickel-tungsten alloy would be interesting too... I believe nickel-tungsten is a replacement for chrome plating, and roughly 10 times more durable than chrome in that use. But if we keep following this thought path we'll wind up with superalloys that nobody here can hone (they'll chew your hone into tiny, tiny bits), Inconel being my favorite....

I believe the "ideal" hardness is somewhere in the mid-low 60's on the tempered hardness side of things from what I have read from some of the guys who are actually making razors...I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. This is where the happy medium is at, not too hard & brittle, not too soft, & won't eat up $100's in stones. There is all kind of fascinating stuff out there now, much less the future like carbon-carbon, ceramics, and so on...

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I believe the "ideal" hardness is somewhere in the mid-low 60's

I think 62-63 on the Rockwell's scale is ideal; though, I don't think carbon steel can be made harder than 65, ever. Not sure what the Vickers hardness is supposed to be, but 60 is the softest carbon steel you'll get on that scale and 120 is the hardest.

EDIT: Well, according to Wikipedia, 62 Rockwell would be 110 Vickers; and 130 Vickers would be 72 Rockwell, so yeah we're talking fairly hard stuff here.

I don't know if ATS-34 or S-30V would qualify as 'exotic' nowadays ( they used to be) but I've got one of the former by Bill Ellis and two of the latter by Robert Williams and they are great shavers.

there are some interesting exotic titanium alloys that are used for high performance engine parts and some interesting ceramic alloys as well but i think you would need diamond plates to hone a razor made out of them

also i once saw a razor made out of temped glass its actually what started my drive to get one of my own and a razor i hope to try and replicate when i get my garage clear and a workshop set up

Originally Posted by hazzardstar

there are some interesting exotic titanium alloys that are used for high performance engine parts and some interesting ceramic alloys as well but i think you would need diamond plates to hone a razor made out of them

also i once saw a razor made out of temped glass its actually what started my drive to get one of my own and a razor i hope to try and replicate when i get my garage clear and a workshop set up

So, you'd need DMTs?

Actually, some exotic titanium alloys used for engine parts are probably exotic nickel alloys with titanium content (because TITANIUM! ... nobody cares about nickel) ... the titanium is important, but it's the nickel that makes or breaks the alloy (even though it's probably 10%-30%, and that's generous). Of course, this includes Inconel-- which, getting to my point, has a tendency to work harden. So the more you machine (i.e. sharpen) it, the harder it gets; eventually it's far too hard to put a fine edge on, least without a really hard hone... maybe a Spyderco.

A glass razor would be extremely interesting but very difficult to do. Sapphire or quartz might be reasonable.

i rember seeing a set of valve spring that were titanium nickel and one of the rare earth metal had a odd olive green tinge to them. yea person that owned the glass razor said it held a finer edge than any other razor she owned but it wasn't for the inexperienced. in her own words it was very scary sharp and you can imagine the damage if you tap it against something

There's that old saying about why go looking for trouble. The old tried and true materials seem to work best for razors and that's why they still use them. Sure you can probably make a Tallonite razor or one made from 100% Tungsten but why?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

There's that old saying about why go looking for trouble. The old tried and true materials seem to work best for razors and that's why they still use them. Sure you can probably make a Tallonite razor or one made from 100% Tungsten but why?

Why bother with working out Basic oxygen steelmaking when the bessemer converter did a truly fantastic job on an economically viable industrial scale?

Even a Gold Dollar #66 is made of better material than what we had in 1880 I'd wager. Sure it's not modern-process Swedish steel; and Swedish steel back then was way better than German steel; but Swedish steel back then was not what Swedish steel is now, either. We have a more consistent, more controlled refinement process than simple puddling; the carbon content is much more consistent, and the impurities are removed much more efficiently. Further, alloy levels are adjusted for consistency based on metallurgical analysis; this batch of steel might not have so much tungsten, but we can always add that.

At the very least, even the lower grade steel used on a cheap Chinese razor is BOS purified, with most impurities removed, and without a huge and detrimental carbon content. Higher grade steels used in Solingen made razors and in razors made anywhere out of high-grade Swedish steel are more closely monitored for impurities, and have their carbon content precisely controlled; and in most cases have alloying metals consistently adjusted for consistency based on known and desirable properties of the final steel alloy.

How marketable are fine steel straight razors on innovative new processes and materials? How many Damascus blades get sold?

a true Damascus steel razor would be nice last time i checked on it tho the process is still lost to the modern world. note i don't mean that pattern welded stuff we have these days i mean the old stuff that was discovered to have nano wire structures in it allowing it to take on a fantastically sharp and stable edge . i think this is where exotic metals will go in the very near future with nano scale processes almost growing the metal for the task its set to perform thats what i call truly exotic