Thread: Exotic steels for strait razor making

Talonite it is. No cooler than that with carbon fiber scales, AND Gold hardware.

Zdp 189 I think would be a good choice, but aks is out. Theyre where I have bought steel in the past. My concern with s90v is that i understand s_0v series steels to have toothy edges, better for slicing than push cutting, and thus not mecessarily ideal for a razor

Turnmaster
I really hope you play around with some talonite and let us know how it works as a shaver. If it's ANY good, I think it would be super cool to use

Originally Posted by Rsq

I'm looking for overkill specifically for the coolness factor. If Ijust wanted to shave, I would have stuck with my mach 3.
I dont have any way to ht myself. I will send everything to Peters HT

Then you will have to make some blades and get them heat treated to see if they live up to expectations. I would recommend calling Peters and having a discussion about what you intend. Razors are not knives. He might have some recommendations as to how best to prepare the blade so he can give you his best work.

S90V and ZDP189? Another pair in the high alloy category and subject to the same limitations. They have good reputations as knife steels. I have used S30V, dendritic stainless and dendritic cobalt blades as knives. Let's say I used them pretty good, not for lifetime sharpness cutting only mylar packing tape and the odd hot dog. They chip and will dull under heavy test conditions. That's far more than I would expect anyone here to treat a razor or fine knife.

Heavy test conditions dont concern me, no one in their right mind expects a .025μ edge to survive wood chopping. Razors are ht'd to high rc hardness, making them relatively brittle. Toughness is not an issue for a razor. It needs edge retension and the ability to take an extremely keen edge.

Ain't gonna happen any time soon. (talonite)

Later

Hardness and toughness are not mutually exclusive. Or, you're choosing to live with poor information. You already have a CPM154 razor. Get that one heat treated, you won't know how that steel will perform until you do. You might find that steel to be good enough. It will be an interesting experiment until it ends.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Hardness and toughness are not mutually exclusive. Or, you're choosing to live with poor information. You already have a CPM154 razor. Get that one heat treated, you won't know how that steel will perform until you do. You might find that steel to be good enough. It will be an interesting experiment until it ends.

True, My point was just that toughness is less important than edge retention
I am almost done grinding the cpm 154. I'm going to grind a couple in 1095 and one in m390, then send them all out together. Once I get them back, then I will have learned a lot.

Also, No such thing as good enough!

I'm currently working with N690 for my razors - a very fine SS for razors, utterly impressed with it. It doesn't mirror polish like O1 but rather has a slight haze, but still very high polish is achievable. The edges are very fine and smooth, I couldn't complain about it as a razor steel compared to the old carbon steels - one would really, really have to have it out for SS, or totally be a carbon-snob to not enjoy the shaves this steel provides...

Then, I'm looking into using M390 as well, I like that it requires a much higher temp to lose temper, so from a makers point of view that is nice to know.

I'm also looking into Nitrobe77/PUD177 which is a high-Nitrogen steel(Yeah that sounds weird I know), but it sounds like it would truly make a perfect straight razor, it's like completely stain-free - you can throw it in the dishwasher or in the ocean.. yet it has a fine grain structure and high hardness capability (HRc 63).

So that's on my list to 'play' with, but availability is scarce... Check out these spec sheets, it's quite something: http://www.watanabeblade.com/english.../nitrobe77.jpg / http://www.watanabeblade.com/english...nitrobe772.jpg

- Mr. Blue, it would be great to hear your thoughts on Nitrobe77 and it's use as razor steel... I've not heard it mentioned here on the forums before.

- Mike

I'm intrigued
Nitrobe 77 has .1%C and .9%N, but hardens to RCs generally only attainable by high carbon steels.
Am I to understand, then, that N plays a similar role as Carbon?
The only concern i would have is the relatively low wear resistance, but this likely means it is easy to hone, given its high strength rating, no?

I believe the best micro structure of steels is from CPM metals. I read that when metal is poured into ingots the carbon has a tendency to gather into larger crystals. In CPM metals the metal is sprayed to form tiny droplets that limits the amount of carbon that can crystallize before cooling to a solid. The metal particles are then heated to forging temperatures and compressed into bars. The bars are then rolled as the metal ingots are to form sheets. The difference is that the carbon is distributed more uniformly on the CPM metals than it is the metal starting from ingots. The next thing to consider is the quality heat treatment. If that isn't done correctly it doesn't matter what metal you start with. Cryo treating the metal after heat treatment will not increase the hardness but will improve the wear resistance. For non CPM metals such as 1095, forging and cryo treating the metals will improve the micro structure and wear resistance. Now, which CPM is better for razors? You'll have to check with a reputable metallurgist for that answer. It's been a while since I played with tool steels and metallurgy and the steel mixes have changed and improved since then. Good luck.