Pilatus steel

I acquired an old Engelswerke razor some time ago. The etching of the blade says "Pilatus steel" in german language. When honing the razor, I felt a noticable difference from nearly any other razor I have honed so far. I felt even more impressive when I tested the keeness of the razor at an intermediate state of honing, normal some time to go to reach an endfinshed edge. The razor passed the HHT without problems and after stroping on linen and a few passes on plain leather HHt in all possible variants, even cutting the hair more than 5 cm from the thumb was no problem (I hone after bevel setting on a 1k only with natural stones, mostly one stone honing on coticules, frankonians or other special stones).

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Well I said to me -you got lucky, razor must have been sharp before. So I dulled the razor on glas and started again honing. After about 5 minutes - same thing. Razor was absolutely sharp without having reached the endfinishing state. So I thought - ok you got lucky, very good razor.

A few days ago I bought another Pilatus steel razor from Engleswerke. And quelle surprise - it behaves absolutely the same.

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So can anyone tell me something about this very special steel, or is it not the steel? Grind of the razors is half-hollow, edge thin grinded, but nothing really special. I have honed quite a few hundred razors so far and in the last half year I haven't changed anything in my honing sequence and progression.

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Pilatus steel was a registered trademark of Engelswerke, Foche somehow from the beginning 20th century on.

Any info or maybe comparable experiences would be appreciated!

Just a wild guess, but could "Pilatus" hint that the blade is made from a type of steel produced in Switzerland?

Bob

I think Bob nailed it. It sounds like every Swiss blade I've ever honed - hard steel that supports a very thin bevel and holds a sharp edge.
Good score.