I have one of each steel. Both are very similar. Tungsten steel is smoother than bohler r100 steel, but the difference is not very huge.
Enviado desde mi Nexus 6P mediante Tapatalk
Printable View
I have one of each steel. Both are very similar. Tungsten steel is smoother than bohler r100 steel, but the difference is not very huge.
Enviado desde mi Nexus 6P mediante Tapatalk
In my opinion, there is a noticeable difference.
The feeling I get from most of the razors that use "tool" steel, the weight and heft tends to be missing, apologies for repeating myself, but I hate the feeling of shaving with something that feels like it could have been a wrench. Feels different in the hand, and on the face, not nearly as smooth.
The Tungsten is the closest feeling to my Sheffield blades so far. The Herr razor, while not Tungsten, has a good weight to it, and I feels fairly indistinguishable from the Riga.
I find stainless steel razors, like the Friodur, or some of the other custom makers using this "lighter" steel, personally, if I don't like the way it feels in my hand, I generally don't like the shave as much either, and this is true for me.
Now, it's not like I'm saying I'd throw the others on the garbage heap....LOL...not by a longshot, they're fine razors, just in the world of personal preference, I prefer a steel that has good weight to it, and comes as close as possible to how the originals were made - the Tungsten accomplishes that extremely well, and obviously, one of the reasons he makes razors using it.
YMMV....
For me, stainless steel razors just don't take as fine an edge as carbon steel ones do. The two stainless steel razors that I have won't be joined by any others, that's for certain. Their weight is just fine, but I really do not care for the lack of smoothness in their edges. YMMV as they say.
I have an opinion that "tungsten" can produce carbides that are great for slicers
but an open blade razor should not slice. If the steel is correctly heated, cooled and
shaped the carbides do not form in bad ways and there is a very abrasive resistant
and tough tool steel that will hold a nice push cut edge for shaving.
I see Tungsten steels with tungsten content from 0.5% to 17% so it is unclear
what steel is involved. As tool steel goes tungsten rich tool steels are difficult
to machine, enough so that the premium cost makes sense.
The difficulty of machining would reflect itself as difficulty honing.
With modern high end synthetic hones all should be all OK but old hones and
even some new hones are a question. Natural hones including j-nats and
coticules need to be evaluated.
My guess is the tungsten steel razors are top notch. No one would work steel
that tough and hard and not have pride in the result.
The key question is to ask what to hone the tungsten steel razor with for the best edge.
Here's the specs on the Tungsten steel Sergej sent me, hope this is what you're looking for:
The razor is made from Tungsten Carbon steel, hardness of the blade is 63HRC. Have no idea what that means, but it looks "official"....:rofl2:
When I sent him my impressions about it being similar to Sheffield steel, he agreed, he said, more like the old Sheffield steel, not as nice as the Silver Steel.
63HRC is hard HARD steel, right up at the top of the hardness range for knives and chisels.
Will take a good stone to tackle that edge. But the edge should last significantly longer than most razors that live in the 55-59 HRC range, as far as I know..
Very tempted to pull the trigger on one of his tungsten Irish points in the 8/8 variety now...
:beer1:
Thanks for the info Mike.
And I've been eyeing his razors for a while. They are really nice looking
As MikeB52 said 63HRC is very hard almost crazy hard.
A white paper #2 steel is one of deluxe choices for a sharp razor edge and is hardened to about 60-61.
Harder than 60-61 carbon steel is often too fragile. Tungsten carbides are hard in the range of 70RHC
and because they are so hard can form slicing teeth because of the differential hardness of the steel and
carbides.
The more I look this stuff up the more I want one even if I have to resort to diamond dust or CBN to sharpen it.
Have fun both steels should make a good razor.
About HRC.
HRC is a way to measure hardness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_scale
There are other steel qualities that come to play but for pure steel HRC is the baseline.
Thanks for that.
Incidentally, he finally replied to my email, and listed some US distributors for the tape. I know when I looked, I was looking at $15+ for a roll of tape, posted from overseas.
In case it is helpful to anyone else, this is what Sergej just sent me for US distributors:
Scapa North America, Windsor: 111 Great Pond Dr, Windsor CT, 06095. Phone: 860.688.8000
Scapa North America, Syracuse: 1111 Vine St, Liverpool NY, 13088
Scapa North America, Inglewood: 540 North Oak St, Inglewood CA, 90302
WEBTEC Converting, LLC: 5900 Middle View Way, Knoxville TN, 37909 Phone: 865.584.8273
I should also mention to other buyers that I had heard stories of "If you ask, you'll get a free roll of tape", I believe that to be the case with the ones sold direct by Sergej, but I bought mine from eBay seller: "is..ma", and he did not have tape to give. Incidentally, mine didn't come in a case either, just wrapped in paper and bubble wrap. No worries, awesome razor at a great price. Used it again this morning!
I have this feeling thet Scapa is becoming the holy grail of tapes.
Thanks Phrank! It's a 7/8" ball bearing steel with bone scales. No shave with it yet, but the fit and finish of these razors is just beautiful.
This is a very good, informative thread.
Thanks a bunch to all you guys. :)
Nice one Andy, im sure it will shave like a champ. :tu
I think Riga Razors are fantastic custom razors, fit,finish and grinding are spot on.
Just a few points; maybe because of my ultra hard water my blade got water spots whilst shaving on her maiden voyage! Whether its because of the type of steel or because only the spine and tang are mirror polished it looked quite bad. I easily polished them out with MAAS and used Renaissance-wax to help prevent the water spots.
Without going into tape, no tape territory dont worry about what tape Sergejs uses, when the time comes to hone your razor regular tape will work just fine. It really doesn't make much difference and a few swipes will negaite any difference.
Upon receiving mine I looked at the bevel uder a cheap loupe and there was a few deep stria, probably left from a 1k, these transpired to a few micro chips after a few shaves. I took it to a Naniwa 2k and easily removed the chips. The HRC might be high but it took an edge very easily. I put a Gok 20k egde and the shave was sublime. Im going to try an Escher edge next.
These are just my personal findings, YMMV!
Got to check one of these out. Very nice. Tapered tang and wedge. Beautiful symmetric grind and nice thin scales. Definitely on the buy list for me
Just won this on the 'Bay - 8/8 French point!
Attachment 266378
Attachment 266379
Attachment 266380
I love those wood scales. I almost ran the price up on you. I had my eyes on it since my Riga was getting homesick for its brothers.
This is my first custom, everything else is either old Sheffields or Japanese. I expected the bidding to go higher, I had about $100 reserve left on my bid!
I was watching that one as well, had a bid on it, but if I hadn't won another of my favourite style W&B's, I would have been on that one, but would have lost, I wouldn't have gone that high for a fifth one...haha.
His razors are vastly undervalued in my opinion, and I don't think it will be much longer where you'll see these exceptionally crafted blades come on the cheap like this. They are superb in every sense of the way in my opinion, the Tungsten steel one's that I have feel almost identical to my old Sheffield steel.
You scored a real beauty, I've had to put my own edge on mine, so be prepared for that depending on your taste, but congrats on a super find.
Was one of the bidders on that one as well.
Believe those are horn, not wood scales. Congratulations on the win!
My favorite blade profile, but I call it Irish, not French point. Tomato, tomahto kinda thing.
Liked it so much I ordered the same shape, but in the aforementioned tungsten steel.
Will be adding it to this thread in a few weeks I hope.
Happy shaves with a beautiful razor.
:chapeau
Was all the amazing blades I've seen in this thread that pushed me over the edge with respect to Sergej's works..
its a long wait...
:D
I'm seriously trying not to buy one right now. It's getting more and more difficult each day
I got outbid today on a nice 7/8 horn scaled one. In retrospect i probably would have to eat beans and rice for the next two weeks to have taken it home. Its the sleeping outside when my significant other seen it that would have really been hard, although the dog would have loved me sleeping in with him.
Ok now because Phrank and Mike now have a tungsten on it's way. Bought a 10/8ths off of eBay. On my phone now it I'd post a pic.
Looking very forward to getting and using this one
Thanks guys my wallet was obviously too phat
Ewwww, 10-8, a biggun!
Nice.
Too big for my cherub like mug, hehe.
Want some pics when you can Dave!
:tu
Here ya go Mike and my friends in this thread a couple pics of it
Attachment 266510
Attachment 266511
Very nice Dave, I was tempted by that bad boy too.
A few razor forgers could learn a thing or two by Sergejs; make impeccable razors for a great price with nice simple elegant designs.
You'll love it!
Yeah I just couldn't resist that bad boy.
Ihave not been looking at them for a few weeks to keep myself from buying one........then I entered this thread again and it was all over :rofl2:
Good Lord those razors are beautiful, and in researching on EBay and other sites, very competitively priced for such a meticulously handcrafted work of art. You guys have given me yet another maker to drool over. Too bad I spent this month's play money on that Fili 14 from our BST (though it is gorgeous too!).t
Edit: In looking for Rigas around the web, I stumbled across the Griffith Shaving Goods website. I had never heard of them, but it is one of the most impressive online shaving vendors I have ever seen, with a stellar collection of new and vintage str8s and related gear. It's worth a look.
Just love the classic lines
Oh yeah!!!!!
Just checked the tracking, my Rigga is in New York :D
With the long holiday weekend I'm hoping to see it next week midweek................
I received my 8/8+ French point yesterday and test-shaved it tonight. The razor appeared well-honed and was quite sharp, but I wanted to lightly mute the point and give it my preferred Jnat edge so a trip to the stones was in order. After muting the point on the side of my King 1k, it got a quick run through Mejiro, Koma, and Tomo nagura on my Nakayama Asagi Tomae. Stropping was 20-20-50 canvas/suede/shell on my Kanayama #80000. The rest of the battery: pre-shave = Musgo Real lyme glyce soap original scent, soap = Le Pere Lucien original scent, brush = Simpsons Chubby 2 in super badger, after shave = Floid Blue.
Verdict: an absolutely lovely shave, right up there with my favorite big W & B FBU's. Heft and balance were superb, the smile was perfect, and the edge had the same velvety laser beam feel that I always get with that finisher. Will I buy another one? HELL YES!!!
Attachment 267283
I'm waiting on this one a 9/8 in tungsten carbon steel and black Micarta scales.
http://i.imgur.com/NskYyNc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/A8obXK9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QV8otdi.jpg