Do any of you fellow shavers prefer Stainless?

I have a rather small inventory of straight razors, less than five, that I have used since I began traditional wet shaving eight years ago. One of them is a stainless from Dovo 5/8 round. This razor has performed very well for me over the years. So much so, that I probably want another one when RAD hits. My mind isn't made up, but I'd like to ask any of you if you really like your stainless? To let you know about myself, I do not hone my razors, other than a 12k grit touch up stone. I've been able to keep all my blades sharp all these years with just that one rock. So, how about it? Who loves/hates stainless?

Like most, I started out with carbon straights, but find myself increasingly leaning towards stainless steel.

Mastro Livi and vintage Henkels Friodurs stainless straights disprove the myth that stainless steel straights are hard to hone or their shave is inferior to carbon straights.

B


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for me, they shave the same, but the few I had definitely took longer on the stone

Hess Hairmilk #44 Stainless

THAT is a serious SS razor

The Dubl Duck SS is pretty sweet so is the C-MON

The older Friodurs are also pretty impressive shavers

Another that might be SS but not actually positive is the Craftsman and Sta-Sharp "Chromized" woooooooo baby those can shave


I am a non-believer in the "Harder to Hone" stories, never noticed that myself

My first razor, and one of my favorites still, is a stainless Henckels Friodur.

I now feel a need to have more stainless razors in my collection for no particular reason. I guess I can just say why not, they shave well and don't rust as easy. I guess that's reason enough.:hmmm:

I have plenty of both and in shaving I could not tell the difference. I've found as a rule stainless razors take a tad more time to hone but I'm talking just a few more strokes and I mean a few. In any case I've had carbon steel razors that took way more time to hone than any stainless.

The material isn't a factor to me in buying a razor.

[QUOTE=gssixgun;1687552Another that might be SS but not actually positive is the Craftsman and Sta-Sharp "Chromized woooooooo baby those can shave

I am a non-believer in the "Harder to Hone" stories, never noticed that myself[/QUOTE]

I have the Sta-Sharp and it is indeed a sweet shaver. I never had any problems honing this blade.

As long as it delivers the goods I don't have a preference. I do lean toward high carbon in pocket knives, but that is a different animal.

I have a few vintage stainless steel razors and like them as much as the carbon steel ones. They shave just as well, hone up nice and generally take little to clean up when you first get them compared to vintage carbon steel razors. I am not seeing any down side to them at all.

Bob

I could never get a stainless to sharpen up to shave ready myself.

I think they hone/shave too similarly for me to tell - I have SS from Henkles, Puma, Mastro Livi, Dorco, Filarmonica and a few others... I would venture a guess that it's the hardness/heat treatment of the material and not the addition of a small amount of chromium to the alloy that makes any difference.

-john

Stainless steel is actually softer than carbon steel isn't it?

I'm like Glen in the 'harder to hone' stories. Never noticed anything in the likes. Zip, Nada, Nothing. I honed plenty and make both. The final hardness in the razor, carbon or stainless, will usually determine a longer or tougher honing session amongst other variables.

I got my first stainless razor last week - a Henckels 72-1/2 that I didn't realize was stainless because I didn't read the tang. I set the bevel on a King 1k then did the rest on Jnats using Asano Mikawa nagura and tomo nagura progression as per normal. Didn't notice any difference in either the honing or the shave and was rather shocked when I saw the word 'stainless' on the tang in glorious 4-point letters. I really was expecting the difference to be noticeable.


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6 of 1, half dozen of the other

Edit: Actually I'm gonna go with carbon, because my Wackers are carbon, and if I had preferred stainless I wouldn't have my Wackers, so it's a good thing I don't.