I've had a the one with "german steel" in the past. Still just another gold dollar...not a good experience. Mine unfortunate had a warped blade right out of the box and the bevel was only cut on one side making it more of a knife than a straight razor. I was terrified to even put it to my face because I knew it would end badly. I would have rather tried to dig in and shave with a rusty butter knife than that piece of crap. I did however receive a new one after sending pictures of the original razor to the company which turned around and sent me a 208 instead of the one I ordered. Looking at the 208 it had a chip on the edge of the blade so I let a local knife shop who deals with straight razor honing and sharpening rework the blade to get the chip out. Upon receiving it back I test shaved it and to my surprise it was actually a pretty nice shave. Not a torrey or dovo nice shave but overall a nice shave. It shaved like a razor you would actually want to buy as a good starter or intermediate type blade to make sure you actually like using a straight without spending a lot of money on the first one you ever buy. Couldnt complain with the 208 but their quality control is terrible.