Thread: stainless steel razors

Originally Posted by beluga

In a conversation with Mr. Aust, he once mentioned that he prefers carbon steel, and I suspect that the cult status of Friodurs may be explained with the ice-hardening that these blades went through and that gave them (literally) an edge over other stainless steel razor.

B.

Of the vintage Solingen made stainless steel razors that I have, all iirc correctly say somewhere on them ice hardened/eis hartung. The only Vintage stainless that I have that is not so marked is an English George Ibberson marked Firth Stainless. I have no idea if current made stainless blades are ice hardened though.

Bob

My 1¢
I have and shave with stainless razors by HESS, WAPI, Wapicopy, Aesculap, British, no name, medical, and a Friodor.
Some are military from field dressing kits.

All, of them, when properly honed, take as good an edge as a carbon steel blade. It required extra time to hone them but it was worth it.
Developments in Cryogenic hardening have reduced grain size also.
YMMV but honing it the answer!
~Richard

Originally Posted by Chugach68

I was told by a metallurgist that I work with that stainless cannot get as sharp as carbon steel blades due to the structure of the metal. I think he said the chromium chunks in it are bigger and break off leaving a more jagged edge than carbon steel. not sure if this is something noticeable while shaving, since I am sure it is microscopic but talking to him about it swayed my decision against stainless. The maintenance of stainless is alluring though.

There are a lot of different types of stainless steel - somewhere around 175 different types. The 440C is probably the most common SS blade steel out there, but 440A and 440B make terrible blades. You definitely don't want 200 grade SS that is used to make pipe fittings.

So yes, stainless steel will make a very nice blade - if you use the correct type of stainless steel.

Under the microscope I see a coarser looking edge on some stainless razors especially when honed on my Shapton Pro's. This can be further refined on my Jnats but I think the heat treatment & maybe also cryo treatment needs to be top notch for stainless as it is generally accepted that SS can have a coarser grain structure than CS.

That said a razor edge does not need to be uber fine to shave well as a lot of 8k users will attest to.

The only SS razors that would not use at least 440C would be RLO's like the Kriegars.