Originally Posted by
Rigensis
Thank you very much for your comments, gents. Indeed, there is quite a lot of information available on different Darwin DE models, but nothing at all on their straights. Like how prominent was their straights production compared to DEs? Was it done throughout 1932 to 1950' or at certain part of this period only (early or late)? Maybe it was only a limited edition production? How many of these straights actually came into existence?
I do not see why cobalt steel should not be considered stainless steel, too. It achieves the same goal as chromium-nickel alloys - does not rust. But probably was not the best choice for mass market products due to economic reasons compared to chromium-nickel. But these manufacturers experimented with different options during first decades of 20th century and one of the places was Sheffield. There were different patents for "stainless" steels and cobalt steel was one of them.
So this is a really interesting question - which straight razor could be considered a first "true" stainless steel razor?