Thread: TI steel

I do not think you have an option if you are looking at a new razor or one made in the last several years. As far as I know TI switched their production to a new steel they advertise as C135 or carbonsong.
Before then they often advertised their steel as 'silver steel' and used 'sheffield'. They had a limited run of pattern welded damascus and in the distant past they made stainless steel razors too. Of course, there is also the TIPTLE series with steel purportedly from the 1800s forged by Pierre Thiers himself.
I am not sure if they still use lead baths in their heat treatment, but they used to do that before the c135 days and marketed it as a very special traditional way for which they've obtained special exemption from the EU regulations.

In any case if you want something different from C135 at this point you have to look at the secondary market.

Originally Posted by RayClem

Apparently, at some point in time, someone actually tried making steel will silver in it. The silver improved the ability of the steel to take a mirror finish, but it was detrimental to the ability of the steel to take and hold an edge. Thus, silver is no longer used. But someone figured that "silver steel" would be a great marketing slogan. Thus, it is often used for any steel (C135 included) that will take a mirror finish. I love razors with highly polished steel.

This is simply not true.

Silver steel was the invention of James Stodart and Michael Faraday. They published their papers on the subject between 1818 and 1821. The sequence of alloys they tried was quite broad and included some extremely exotic (for the time) metals such as palladium, iridium/osmium and rhodium. They felt the exotic materials produced the best steel alloys, but they were cost prohibitive.

The material they were most excited about was imported steel from India mixed with a very small amount of silver.

This caused a long-running debate with Sheffield steel refiners, but in the end most ended up adopting the process.

Yes, they used real silver. No, it was not just a marketing slogan.

The process was still used up to about 1900. It was as simple as including a single shilling coin in each bar of steel (less than %1 by mass).

Stodart and Faraday claimed it improved the workability of the steel as well as added corrosion resistance.

Whether or not it really improved the steel is entirely debatable -- but whether or not silver was used in the refining of Sheffield steel is not debatable. It was. There are eyewitness accounts.